Napster is fun ... who knew?
Napster announced today that it has redisigned its service so users no longer need to install client software on their computers. Not that big of a change -- I actually prefer having the software, which only takes up 7 MB of hard drive space -- but it's getting a good amount of coverage and gives me an excuse to write about Napster.
I only became a subscriber a couple of weeks ago. Until then, I'd never even thought about using the service, probably because I was an early user of the original Napster and was turned off when the name and the logo became attached to something that wasn't really Napster. I finally overcame that early this month and now just wish I had signed up long ago.
It's such a great deal, I can't believe Napster has the support of the music industry. For $10 a month, you get access to thousands of albums and millions of songs whenever you want to play them. I listen to, or at least play in the background, about three albums a day, so that would work out to be about 11 cents each if I only used Napster. That would be even cheaper than those dodgy Russian music sites (allofmp3.com, et al.) that the payment processing industry has essentially shut down. No one can be making much money from this -- including Napster, apparently -- but the same backwards-minded record companies that support lawsuits against anyone who ever downloaded a song are putting their music on Napster.
Now, I don't actually play all my music through Napster -- I'm still an eMusic conoisseur-level subscriber and have bought albums from many other online stores (although never from iTunes or anyone else that sells DRM-laden music) -- but I've been averaging more than one album a day, which is worth more than the 33 cents I'm paying.
New music gets added very quickly. For example, the top three albums on the current Billboard chart, from Bruce Springsteen, Rascal Flatts, and Matchbox Twenty, were all available almost immediately on Napster. And they have a lot of older albums too (e.g. Neil Young albums back to his 1969 debut).
The other point in Napster's favour is that it serves Canada. Rhapsody -- a similar service -- has never made an effort to come here. Pandora was never as good as Napster and abandoned Canada in a heartbeat.
The downside is that the sound quality through Napster isn't the best. It's pretty good, but it doesn't match what you'd get through eMusic or other file download services. And you don't actually get to keep a copy of the songs, at least not if you're honoring the user agreement (technologically, there's nothing to stop someone from using audio capture software). Unsubscribe, and you're left with nothing. Or if record companies start to pull their music from the service, some songs that you've listened to in the past may no longer be available. The other negative is that, with some albums (not most, but not an insignificant number either) there are tracks that can't be streamed and are only available through a paid download at $1.19 each. I'd never buy a song through Napster, so I'd either have to get them through eMusic (at 25 cents each) or other sources, or do without.
Overall, though, it's been a boon. I've listened to songs I would never pay to download, played albums that I couldn't find anywhere else -- including eMusic and even BitTorrent -- and found new releases that I hadn't yet seen reviewed anywhere ... all for less than the price of one CD.
I only became a subscriber a couple of weeks ago. Until then, I'd never even thought about using the service, probably because I was an early user of the original Napster and was turned off when the name and the logo became attached to something that wasn't really Napster. I finally overcame that early this month and now just wish I had signed up long ago.
It's such a great deal, I can't believe Napster has the support of the music industry. For $10 a month, you get access to thousands of albums and millions of songs whenever you want to play them. I listen to, or at least play in the background, about three albums a day, so that would work out to be about 11 cents each if I only used Napster. That would be even cheaper than those dodgy Russian music sites (allofmp3.com, et al.) that the payment processing industry has essentially shut down. No one can be making much money from this -- including Napster, apparently -- but the same backwards-minded record companies that support lawsuits against anyone who ever downloaded a song are putting their music on Napster.
Now, I don't actually play all my music through Napster -- I'm still an eMusic conoisseur-level subscriber and have bought albums from many other online stores (although never from iTunes or anyone else that sells DRM-laden music) -- but I've been averaging more than one album a day, which is worth more than the 33 cents I'm paying.
New music gets added very quickly. For example, the top three albums on the current Billboard chart, from Bruce Springsteen, Rascal Flatts, and Matchbox Twenty, were all available almost immediately on Napster. And they have a lot of older albums too (e.g. Neil Young albums back to his 1969 debut).
The other point in Napster's favour is that it serves Canada. Rhapsody -- a similar service -- has never made an effort to come here. Pandora was never as good as Napster and abandoned Canada in a heartbeat.
The downside is that the sound quality through Napster isn't the best. It's pretty good, but it doesn't match what you'd get through eMusic or other file download services. And you don't actually get to keep a copy of the songs, at least not if you're honoring the user agreement (technologically, there's nothing to stop someone from using audio capture software). Unsubscribe, and you're left with nothing. Or if record companies start to pull their music from the service, some songs that you've listened to in the past may no longer be available. The other negative is that, with some albums (not most, but not an insignificant number either) there are tracks that can't be streamed and are only available through a paid download at $1.19 each. I'd never buy a song through Napster, so I'd either have to get them through eMusic (at 25 cents each) or other sources, or do without.
Overall, though, it's been a boon. I've listened to songs I would never pay to download, played albums that I couldn't find anywhere else -- including eMusic and even BitTorrent -- and found new releases that I hadn't yet seen reviewed anywhere ... all for less than the price of one CD.
posted by Gary Will at 3:50 PM
