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All the engineers from napster went off to setup their own music sites, the most high profile children of Napster are of course Snocap, which was setup by Shawn after napster 1.0 died and later got acquired by imeem.com which was also started by napster engineers and has become the most popular web2.0 music site (over twice the users of last.fm).

There's also finetune and a few other small music projects that can trace some lineage to the original napster. Every single one of these descendants from napster are a whole lot more interesting and innovative than what the Napster brand ever did.

Download mixes from torrent sites (you can DL torrents with one click using Opera). I feel good about this ethically as you are only listening to one song by each band. I particularly like "indie rock playlist" which has a new list every month. Keep only a fraction of those songs, the very best. Listen to music podcasts: KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic has great live recordings. NPR's All Songs Considered. The Sound Opinions podcast keeps one up to date on really mainstream stuff. The Bay Bridged to gives a good sampling of local music, should one be lucky enough to live in San Francisco. Listen to Pandora.com, to see if it can recommend any songs based on your old favorites (if using Pandora, be sure to keep genres separate or it gets confused. And monitor it or before you know it it will be playing crap). Other people like lastfm but the only times I tried it it mostly played good songs that I have already heard too many times. Then I see if you can find your new favorite songs (found on isohunt or podcasts) on finetune.com, which is a site where you can put up your own "radio station." You can pick three by any artist, which is plenty to get a sampling. Finetune will also, like lastfm, reccommend songs, bands and other stations for you to listen to. You can also search through tags, DJs and bands to find things similar to what you know you like. Then if you find anything catchy or intrguing, you can throw it on your playlist. When you find that you have either downloaded three or four songs by a band or are really excited to hear one of their songs come up on your station, that is the time to go to emusic and buy the album. At this point you will be so excited about your recent finds that you will want to make mix tapes for all your friends of the best of these best ofs. There are tons of other great sites, this is just one person's technique. Of course I don't do this because it all starts with (horrors!) file sharing. One person's finetune station (must have flash), that isn't neccessarily me: http://www.finetune.com/user/daretoeatapeach/

Musicians these days just suck.

Not true! Corporate radio sucks: they only play the "safe" (read: not innovative) songs and they play less variety. So you get established bands that are doing the same old same old that occasionally still have brilliance and the recording industry's best guess on the best new track from whatever musical revolution has already happened . When I hear the radio it sounds like they are still looking for the next Nirvana or Rage Against the Machine when they should be looking for _new_ innovators. By the time a a good band (the Postal Service, for example) makes it to the radio the fans that sparked the scene have overplayed it themselves and moved on. If you are relying on radio for your music you won't have much luck. But there are tons of great bands out there that won't get played if their fans don't make mixtapes and pass along the goodness.

I could never support DRM tunes because half the joy of finding new music is passing it along to others. Because of Napster I discovered whole genres of music--blues, punk, emo, swing--that I would never have gotten into if I had to buy a ton of albums. I believe those downloading today have more diverse tastes than the generations before me because it is so much easier to research and download a sample.

If I download three songs by a band that none of my friends have heard of and put the best one on a mix tape and give it to all of my friends, that is free publicity for the band. Remember that the major labels pay people to go to clubs and hand out free CDs before an album breaks big (or you sometimes see them in stacks for free at record stores) to spread word of mouth. And also remember that the overwhelming majority of bands (IE not Brittany) make their money off of touring so passing along a good tune may put more money in their pockets.

In the spirit of sharing, you might find some good songs here: http://www.finetune.com/user/daretoeatapeach but then again these are just my preferences. I have 500 songs on this playlist and 99% of them you won't here on the radio.

If you are not finding good music than your friends are clearly not downloading enough. ;)

YouTube (and google video) has worked since the beta in December. There was even a site created to help autoformat it so all videos display nicer on the Wii. This is just a front end to YouTube's site so you can bypass it if you don't care for how they are formatting it. Of note Strongbad, and Foamy work great too.

Does it handle streaming audio/video?

The beta didn't do shoutcast, but I have been using Finetune for quite some time.

Also wiiarcade.com has a handful of games that will work well with the Wii remote.

The Wii is interesting at the moment, not just because of its controller. It's so much more than that. First, you can grab all the used Gamecube games you can handle. All for super-cheap if you know where to look. Which means that the Wii can be used to play all the cool titles you might have missed. (I highly recommend Donkey Kong Jungle Beat!)

Secondly, the Virtual Console gives you all the classics under one roof. Whether you want to finally play Bonk, zip along with Sonic, relive Mario World or Mario 64, fly with StarFox, enter your favorite adventures with Zelda, or have a go at the hidden classics that you missed, the Virtual Console has a lot to offer.

Lastly, the free web browser is more than just a web browser. It's a portal to casual games, a television channel, and even a WiFi stereo system.

I won't even get into the fun you can have with hacking your Wii through the SD Cards and WiiMote. (If you're into that sort of thing.) Suffice it to say that you can transfer your Miis to the Internet, play your favorite SCUMMVM games, use your WiiMotes to play your computer games, and other fun hacking possibilities. :)

Interesting, I wrote about the very same thing when I reviewed Wii Play, but I do see how that segment (hardcore gamer, tons of free time, commits to games, etc.) will have a tough time with the Wii during this 1st wave of games. Nintendo has built up a lot of possibilities though their demos (Wii Sports, Wii Play) - all they can probably do is wonder how a full-fledged game would be like. Personally, I think it's perfect; I've found myself not playing as much so I can "extend the experience" (like not beating Warioware or getting all the Medals in Wii play) - it's just perfect to waste 15 minutes after a long day at work.

I do spend a lot of time on finetunefinetune, playing Kid Icarus, etc.

The truth is, there will be dead air for a while, but that's what the VC is all about. When the second Wave comes, there MUST be full fledged games and online play, if not, Nintendo just would have blundered.

I'm not commenting on the statement above because it contradicts itself (no units == excitement still there). Why not ask... to what point this shortage of systems and accessories will HURT Nintendo? I can see people getting frustrated if they can't find what they're looking for, especially if you couple it with how pleasant the buying experience can be.