Five Forces Model of Competition Porter’s uses the five forces to give appropriate strategies that help in analyzing company’s position against any competitors within the market. The forces used include; the power of suppliers, new entrants, threats posed by substitutes, customers power and rivalry. Threats posed by new entrants The music industry is one of the industries with extremely high start-up costs, this provides low rate of new entrants. The internet firms Napster, Kazaa, and Apple’s have explicitly utilized the distribution channels and also based their sales on strong brands making it difficult for the new entrants to penetrate. This has made the competitors in this industry to try small markets in place of large markets that have been occupied by the bigger companies. Napster, Kazaa, and Apple’s have built a strong base over the years hence creating popular space within the computer industry (McGuigan, Moyer and Harris 382). Status of the suppliers within the market The business of music and computers is maintained using constant supply from numerous suppliers in the market. The larger companies Napster, Kazaa, and Apple’s makes the position within the market to be low since they can switch suppliers any time and feel no negative effects. This has made the suppliers from the music industry to adjust on their prices and quality of products in order to attract bids from the big companies. This clearly shows that the competition is too high and leaves the suppliers with tough decisions to make (McGuigan, Moyer and Harris 333). The status of Buyers within the market Customers of internet firms Napster, Kazaa, and Apple’s have many options of computer companies where they can do their purchases. The costs involved when switching to any option is low making the buyers move at will. This is brought by the differences in cost, quality and services provided. This has made the power of buyers to be strong within the music industry. Napster, Kazaa, and Apple’s should create a strong differentiation of products in order to counter this since it will raise the costs required for an individual to shift from one company to another. The companies can only find it difficult when differentiation is done within the computer operating systems (McGuigan, Moyer and Harris 64). Substitute Products There are numerous substitute products in the music industry that are readily available for download. These companies have to put extra effort in order to convince customers of the superiority of their products. This calls for more differentiation of the music products that these companies deal with. The differentiation of the operating systems of these companies can command higher pricing only when channelled through other options other than individual buyers. Napster, Kazaa, and Apple’s can counteract this by locking business facilities to enable change to occur within the facility or more than one region. The connectivity of music industry within the internet has increased the possibility of switching individual units keeping other things constant (McGuigan, Moyer and Harris 230). Level of Rivalry Napster, Kazaa, and Apple’s have other competitors with the potential of commanding larger portion of the market share. Competition is high in the music industry since the switching costs are very low. The internet music indus