Napster.com

[Bryan330i]

I decided to give napstar.com a try, all the while thinking there must be some catch to the 15.00/month deal for all downloads. I admit I am impressed with what I see so far. I downloaded a ton of stuff today. I have been into the 90’s stuff a lot lately and I found ALL Hootie and the Blowfish songs for no additional charge, in addition to a ton of other stuff from other groups.

This is not a plug for napster.com as I have no interest in them at all, but I do find it interesting that napster.com is able to do this. From what I understand you can download the songs on CD and then upload them to iTunes then iPod. I guess I will find out how well it works a bit later.

Has anyone else tried this?

It almost seems like too good of a deal. I got 75 songs today for a 15.00/month charge versus iTunes $75.00. I guess they are thinking that perhaps people will keep paying the 15.00 and usage and $$$$ will become more favorable towards them? [???1]

 

[Tom]

Is there a catch? I've read somewhere that you only lease the music?

 

[jrt67ss350]

Yeah, there seems to be a catch. It appears that you are only leasing the music for the $15.00 a month fee to either listen to it on your computer or on a Napster-compatible portable MP3 player (iPod is not compatible). From what I gathered from the website, if you want to actually burn the music to a CD, you have to pay 99 cents to buy the song, just like iTunes. If you want to do anything with the music that can result in your permanently keeping it, then you have to buy it. If you want to stick it on a non-Napster compatible MP3 player like an iPod, then you have to buy the music for 99 cents a track. Otherwise, you are just "checking out" the music like you check out a book from the library for the $15.00 a month fee - you don't own the music until you pay 99 cents per song for it.

This is how I understood how it works, but their website doesn't do a really good job of explaining it - probably because they don't want you to realize that it is too good to be true.

 

[frolf]

hmmm, i feel like i could pwn the pixels if i were leased aforemention pixelating sound bits.

i mean come on guys, i DO have a pentium 4

 

[Bryan330i]

From what I can tell you pay 15.00 per month and $0.99 per song for any rights so it is actually more expensive than iTunes.

And I agree, the website is terrible, it's like it was designed intentionally lacking in some key information.

I got nothing but error/hate/cheap bastard messages when I tried to do anything other than listen to the songs.

 

[Average Jae]

yea the whole $15 deal is enticing, until you realize you Have to keep the subscription.

it is said that the player needs to be in contact w/ the server to reset (for lack of better terms) the time to live timer. if you go for an x amount of time w/out syncing w/ the server, whether it be because you terminated the sub, or because you just couldn't connect, all the songs in your player just maybe useless, even if you dropped $180 for the first year..

but if you know anything about haxors, it won't last too long. info wants to be free, remember?

 

[Bryan330i]

Word seems to be getting around quick about napster. I canceled my membership less than 24 hours after starting. But I admit I didn't go through everything as carefully as I should and I was actually working on other stuff while downloading the songs.

I am sticking with iTunes because for 15.00/month I can actually use 15 songs ongoing, and hell that's 180/year for the same price with better rights, and more songs than I would ever get anyway.

 

[manuel]

the thing that sucks about itunes is that it uses the .m4p extensions. if you want to play the song without using the worthless itunes software, you need to download a converter. if i had an ipod id be ok with itunes.

 

[epj3]

I can't afford to buy the cd's, which I can get cheaper than $1/song, so itunes and napster makes no sense. But since I can't afford to buy the music anyways, I just listen to the radio or use limewire for the occasional Mp3 (hardly use anymore though)

I'd also rather put $15/month towards sirius or xm satelite radio.

 

[gbf1lm]

heres the thing, you can record an mp3 of any sound coming through your speakers in high quality. it takes a while(the length of what you want to record) but still its dirt cheap. most people dont know.

ive downloaded a few songs form napster for .99c, like 4, i am NOT at all happy with the quality. if shell out the money for a cd and then rip it to mp3 myself in the same bitrate teh quality is so much better, havnt tried itunes.

 

[epj3]

heres the thing, you can record an mp3 of any sound coming through your speakers in high quality. it takes a while(the length of what you want to record) but still its dirt cheap. most people dont know.

ive downloaded a few songs form napster for .99c, like 4, i am NOT at all happy with the quality. if shell out the money for a cd and then rip it to mp3 myself in the same bitrate teh quality is so much better, havnt tried itunes.

192kbps+ or bust!!