I just signed up for the "new" Napster after seeing a commercial offering a 14 day free trial. This is pretty awesome, for either 9.95 a month you can download and listen to all the music you want or for 14.95 a month you can have the songs on your portable mp3 player. Only thing that sucks is I have an iPod, which isn't compatible with Napster. I think this is a GREAT deal. How did they get the record companies to agree to this? It seems like this would be more popular than it is.
Someone in another thread said that if you quit the service, the songs no longer work... Is that true?
yep. if you want the songs forever, then it works like iTunes where you just pay X amount for the music.
I feel privileged, thanks. I'm not saying you're an idiot, but why would you contemplate paying, when you can get the same service for free.
so you're saying why pay for anything when you can just steal it? i'll be over to your house soon... I don't really care about piracy, and, hell...i download mp3s all the time, but I would like to pay for the music...at a price I think is reasonable. I think this is a very reasonable deal...
OK, found what I was looking for... John Gruber debates a pack of wild baboons, iTunes vs Napster... GRUBER: The difference between the iTunes Music Store and subscription-based services could not be more stark. Apple's model allows you to actually own, with certain restrictions, the music you purchase. Napster allows you to rent music, based on a monthly fee. Once you cancel your subscription to Napster, all of the music ceases to play. No more Judas Priest, no more Thin Lizzy, no more Iron Maiden. Just to name a few bands at random. Certainly, either model could be preferable based on how you listen to music, but Apple's seems to provide more of a long-term return for your investment. Also, Napster's advertising campaign, which sets up an inaccurate comparison to the iTunes Music Store as a straw man, is disingenous at best. Thank you, John. Pack of wild baboons, your rebuttal? PACK OF WILD BABOONS: WHOOOO!!! HAAAAAHHHHH!!! OOH-OOH!!! WHOOOO-OOOOOHHH!!! AAAAAAAAH-AAAAAAAAH!!! WHOOO-WHOOO!!! AHHH-AHHH!!! WHOOOOOO!!! GRUBER: AAAAAGH! THEY'RE BITING ME! AAAAGH! NOT THE FACE! NOT THE FACE! HELP! HELP ME!!! NO!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!! AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!! cars
No way I'd buy stuff that I couldn't keep. To me, it is just easier to go with a service where you can purchase what you want when you want it and keep it forever. I don't want to rent CD's anymore than I want to borrow MP3's.
I've got $150 left on my SOny Connect Gold Card. Maybe we can come to an agreement here.... ($150 is 150 downloads....)
yeah, but there are ways around it you can use winamp with a certain plugin that will convert the songs to wav on the fly - this gets rid of the license issue so in theory, you could sign up for the free trial, download like crazy, cancel the trial and get to keep all that music
Yes, but once you revert them to MP3, does that screw things back up? Napster seems like fool's gold. To me, neither company has got it right yet. Itunes is slightly too expensive and needs it's mp3s to work with other non apple MP3 players. Napster is just downright nasty in it's trying to aggresively corner the market by cheating people who don't read the fine print. It looks like it's impossible to "own" music anymore.
I haven't tried this theory yet, I've only read about it. but from what I've seen, changing the mp3s to wavs removes the DRM (digital rights management - the license). Once you have the wav, you can make it into anything you need, mp3, wma etc etc
Interesting. That is a pain in the butt to do that to so many songs though. Unless there's a program that does it better that I don't know about yet.
DBPowerAmp's Auxillary Input is your friend Its a beautiful way to record a song as you play it and it automatically converts it to MP3. I don't usually use it for music because I don't listen to much music, but I love using it to record streaming radio on the net so I can listen to some Houston Sports Radio while in my car even though I am out of state.
According to Napster's site, it says if you have a portable MP3 player, it'll be $15/month. Why does it say here, it's $9.95/month? http://www.napster.com/using_napster/index.html
