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No, because they wouldn't consider this message as piracy, despite the links at the bottom. Can you guess why?

Napster pay service
Rhapsody
iMesh

There are many music download and music access services available. Just go elsewhere. Like so many "firsts" on the Net - e.g. eBay, Yahoo, etc. - iTunes seems old in the tooth. Couple that with egregious DRM policies and attempts to choke interoperability. Why bother. I like Apple products, but who really needs iTunes for music. Other than as a software platform for playback, I could care less about the iTunes music store. Try these: http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?ie=UTF8&node=163856011 http://pandora.com/ http://www.emusic.com/ http://www.slacker.com/ http://www.napster.com/ http://music.myspace.com/ www.youtube.com http://www.rhapsody.com/home.html http://www.walmart.com/music http://www.last.fm/ http://social.zune.net/music/ http://www.seeqpod.com/

Although your point is a very good one, what if they change their policies or no longer offer certain tracks, you happen to be incorrect on one point: they still offer DRMed WMA"s.

They are now calling it "Napster to Go". It's $14.95 a month. It's the same old Napster service as was offered under the old owners. (I don't know about your Japanese music, with the new addition that WMA-compliant players can play the music. (This excludes Zune. But Creative and many others make players that are compatible.)

Napster is pushing un-DRMed MP3's because that is what the market wants.

For more info on Napster to Go, http://www.napster.com/index.html?darwin_ttl=1251936647&darwin=s0809B
or click the link at the bottom of Napster.com.

--Sam

All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again...
(Some content to stick on your USB key.)

Jamendo
Magnatune
Amazon
Napster
iTunes Store ... blech.

For all you music lovers out there â" there is a loophole in the Napster website â" you can get the 10 MP3 deal using 3NAP107 as the promo code https://sms.napster.com/ns/registration/standard/create_account.html?codestr=3NAP107

Many posters wrote that they'd rather download content. But if you download content with DRM that's tied to some authentication server, you can't rely on the service staying up for more than a few years.

Major systems which have already shut down, making purchased content unplayable:

• DIVX. Rent a cheap DVD, re-authorize to play again. Discontinued in 1999. Content now unplayable.
• AOL MusicNow Downloadable music, Microsoft DRM. Service discontinued, customer base transferred to Napster. Existing downloads now unplayable. Previous purchases credited as Napster purchases where both services had the same content.
• Yahoo Music Downloadable music, Microsoft DRM. Service discontinued, customer base transferred to RealNetworks. Existing downloads now unplayable. Coupons issued to former customers.
• MTV URGE Downloadble music, monthly fixed fee. Service discontinued, customers offered "upgrade" deal by RealNetworks. Existing downloads now unplayable.

That's why downloaded DRMed content can't be trusted.

You're talking about free full-length streams?

Right now (supposedly) there's free.napster.com, last.fm, and lala.com, but I've only had success with the first. The other two don't seem to have much of a selection. When I try to stream an album, they'll give me a couple songs from it, or 30s samples only, or something like that.

The OP is perhaps mystified because he is expressing an opinion from 2005 as shown here. Clearly mobile is where the money is, as Steve Jobs can tell you. Their English compatibles page is not too exciting but take a look at NTT DoCoMo's lineup (Japanese). DoCoMo sells advanced phones in Japan with Napster built in. Actually, the brand seems on that page to be "Napster x Tower Records" which will make you either gleeful or sick.. like the RIAA is selling Napster or vice versa. Phones providing unlimited songs it seems are made by several manufacturers (list).

There are two more data points to note.

1. The monthly flat fee format is very popular at least in Japan. In particular, ring tones are a big business, but also all kinds of other media like games, weather reports, and what looks compelling to me is NaviTime which tells you the combination of train and other transportation to get you to your destination in the shortest time. Flat fees though are usually I think 300 yen per month though (for a subscription to downloadable Java games from a game manufacturer). Perhaps you can get more money if bundled when you buy the phone.

2. The HSDPA high speed data network rollout is marketed to people as the way to deliver songs to your phone. Personally I wanted to go to the Internet at high speed but it turns out (at least until sometime in the future) that this is only within the carrier's network, perhaps only to registered sites. So a Napster-like unlimited service is very useful for HSDPA rollout especially for carriers (all of them) who just want to stuff things down your throat and could care less about connecting you the rest of the world.

I should note two things: it may be possible to get out of the network but you will go broke, and also the docomo person told me they might come out with a pcmcia card or some such that could do it. Anyway I'm waiting for the model supposed to come out this month or so that can also do roaming (World Wind service) in the U.S. (the last country to be added it seems).

Apple seem to be the only people who've managed a paid digital music store with any success. eMusic has been going forever without any real traction, Napster continues to lose money, meanwhile you can get free, legal major label music from places like imeem.com which is all ad supported.

I think what you meant to say is that every song purchased from the iTunes music store can be burned to CD. In the non-apple world, there are a variety of subscription services built on microsoft DRM (of which this new service is basically another). Their business model depends on having the music only work as long you pay your monthly fee.

With these services, you can certainly burn (and re-rip) every song you purchase, but you also have the option of legally downloading music which you haven't purchased, and which you have limited rights for.

You can think of it as a superset of iTunes, if thats easier.

Besides that, what is really up with this love theme in music? There is around zero pop songs that isn't about sex, love, boyfriends, breakup etc. If you name one I will give you a cookie.

I've often thought that, myself. On reading your comment, I decided to find out.

Billboard's Top 40 track #2 (was #1 last week) is Nickelback's "If Everyone Cared". It's some hippy crap, saying "everybody be nice to eachother and cooperate and the world will be a better place". It does seem to mention romantic love but that isn't the main theme.

LOL! #3 is Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder" and it is about sex and/or love, but the lyrics are so funny that I have to share them.

For comparison, I googled for Pantera lyrics and got this, an album with ten songs, one of which is not about love or sex. Okay, a newer album has not a single song about love.

Metal kicks ass, partly because the usually incomprehensible lyrics can sometimes be interesting, but mostly because of the music. Since you're into non-love lyrics, you might want to consider some alt country music too. There's quite a bit of metal crossover. Hank Williams III has been in lots of metal and punk bands, and has his own metal band Assjack, but his country music with his Damn Band is hardcore. Listen to the song "Bad Magick" by Shooter Jennings to feel like you're hearing a dusty old recording of Led Zeppelin collaborating with Bad Company. Shooter Jennings effortlessly segues from country to metal and back in the song "Busted In Baylor County", playing part of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" (the Live At Irving Plaza version has a much longer portion of "Sweet Leaf" than the album version). Rebel Meets Rebel is said to be the last project Dimebag Darrel did before he was killed; it has The Cowboys From Hell playing and aging country outlaw David Allan Coe on lead vocals (and the song "Get Out Of My Life" has Hank III in it too). Jay Berndt of Kilgore Smudge now fronts a country band called The Brimstone Assembly, which offers a style of hardcore country similar to that of Hank III.

Holy shit. I need to get a life.

Besides that, what is really up with this love theme in music? There is around zero pop songs that isn't about sex, love, boyfriends, breakup etc. If you name one I will give you a cookie.

I've often thought that, myself. On reading your comment, I decided to find out.

Billboard's Top 40 track #2 (was #1 last week) is Nickelback's "If Everyone Cared". It's some hippy crap, saying "everybody be nice to eachother and cooperate and the world will be a better place". It does seem to mention romantic love but that isn't the main theme.

LOL! #3 is Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder" and it is about sex and/or love, but the lyrics are so funny that I have to share them.

For comparison, I googled for Pantera lyrics and got this, an album with ten songs, one of which is not about love or sex. Okay, a newer album has not a single song about love.

Metal kicks ass, partly because the usually incomprehensible lyrics can sometimes be interesting, but mostly because of the music. Since you're into non-love lyrics, you might want to consider some alt country music too. There's quite a bit of metal crossover. Hank Williams III has been in lots of metal and punk bands, and has his own metal band Assjack, but his country music with his Damn Band is hardcore. Listen to the song "Bad Magick" by Shooter Jennings to feel like you're hearing a dusty old recording of Led Zeppelin collaborating with Bad Company. Shooter Jennings effortlessly segues from country to metal and back in the song "Busted In Baylor County", playing part of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" (the Live At Irving Plaza version has a much longer portion of "Sweet Leaf" than the album version). Rebel Meets Rebel is said to be the last project Dimebag Darrel did before he was killed; it has The Cowboys From Hell playing and aging country outlaw David Allan Coe on lead vocals (and the song "Get Out Of My Life" has Hank III in it too). Jay Berndt of Kilgore Smudge now fronts a country band called The Brimstone Assembly, which offers a style of hardcore country similar to that of Hank III.

Holy shit. I need to get a life.

Besides that, what is really up with this love theme in music? There is around zero pop songs that isn't about sex, love, boyfriends, breakup etc. If you name one I will give you a cookie.

I've often thought that, myself. On reading your comment, I decided to find out.

Billboard's Top 40 track #2 (was #1 last week) is Nickelback's "If Everyone Cared". It's some hippy crap, saying "everybody be nice to eachother and cooperate and the world will be a better place". It does seem to mention romantic love but that isn't the main theme.

LOL! #3 is Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder" and it is about sex and/or love, but the lyrics are so funny that I have to share them.

For comparison, I googled for Pantera lyrics and got this, an album with ten songs, one of which is not about love or sex. Okay, a newer album has not a single song about love.

Metal kicks ass, partly because the usually incomprehensible lyrics can sometimes be interesting, but mostly because of the music. Since you're into non-love lyrics, you might want to consider some alt country music too. There's quite a bit of metal crossover. Hank Williams III has been in lots of metal and punk bands, and has his own metal band Assjack, but his country music with his Damn Band is hardcore. Listen to the song "Bad Magick" by Shooter Jennings to feel like you're hearing a dusty old recording of Led Zeppelin collaborating with Bad Company. Shooter Jennings effortlessly segues from country to metal and back in the song "Busted In Baylor County", playing part of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" (the Live At Irving Plaza version has a much longer portion of "Sweet Leaf" than the album version). Rebel Meets Rebel is said to be the last project Dimebag Darrel did before he was killed; it has The Cowboys From Hell playing and aging country outlaw David Allan Coe on lead vocals (and the song "Get Out Of My Life" has Hank III in it too). Jay Berndt of Kilgore Smudge now fronts a country band called The Brimstone Assembly, which offers a style of hardcore country similar to that of Hank III.

Holy shit. I need to get a life.

Besides that, what is really up with this love theme in music? There is around zero pop songs that isn't about sex, love, boyfriends, breakup etc. If you name one I will give you a cookie.

I've often thought that, myself. On reading your comment, I decided to find out.

Billboard's Top 40 track #2 (was #1 last week) is Nickelback's "If Everyone Cared". It's some hippy crap, saying "everybody be nice to eachother and cooperate and the world will be a better place". It does seem to mention romantic love but that isn't the main theme.

LOL! #3 is Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder" and it is about sex and/or love, but the lyrics are so funny that I have to share them.

For comparison, I googled for Pantera lyrics and got this, an album with ten songs, one of which is not about love or sex. Okay, a newer album has not a single song about love.

Metal kicks ass, partly because the usually incomprehensible lyrics can sometimes be interesting, but mostly because of the music. Since you're into non-love lyrics, you might want to consider some alt country music too. There's quite a bit of metal crossover. Hank Williams III has been in lots of metal and punk bands, and has his own metal band Assjack, but his country music with his Damn Band is hardcore. Listen to the song "Bad Magick" by Shooter Jennings to feel like you're hearing a dusty old recording of Led Zeppelin collaborating with Bad Company. Shooter Jennings effortlessly segues from country to metal and back in the song "Busted In Baylor County", playing part of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" (the Live At Irving Plaza version has a much longer portion of "Sweet Leaf" than the album version). Rebel Meets Rebel is said to be the last project Dimebag Darrel did before he was killed; it has The Cowboys From Hell playing and aging country outlaw David Allan Coe on lead vocals (and the song "Get Out Of My Life" has Hank III in it too). Jay Berndt of Kilgore Smudge now fronts a country band called The Brimstone Assembly, which offers a style of hardcore country similar to that of Hank III.

Holy shit. I need to get a life.

Besides that, what is really up with this love theme in music? There is around zero pop songs that isn't about sex, love, boyfriends, breakup etc. If you name one I will give you a cookie.

I've often thought that, myself. On reading your comment, I decided to find out.

Billboard's Top 40 track #2 (was #1 last week) is Nickelback's "If Everyone Cared". It's some hippy crap, saying "everybody be nice to eachother and cooperate and the world will be a better place". It does seem to mention romantic love but that isn't the main theme.

LOL! #3 is Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder" and it is about sex and/or love, but the lyrics are so funny that I have to share them.

For comparison, I googled for Pantera lyrics and got this, an album with ten songs, one of which is not about love or sex. Okay, a newer album has not a single song about love.

Metal kicks ass, partly because the usually incomprehensible lyrics can sometimes be interesting, but mostly because of the music. Since you're into non-love lyrics, you might want to consider some alt country music too. There's quite a bit of metal crossover. Hank Williams III has been in lots of metal and punk bands, and has his own metal band Assjack, but his country music with his Damn Band is hardcore. Listen to the song "Bad Magick" by Shooter Jennings to feel like you're hearing a dusty old recording of Led Zeppelin collaborating with Bad Company. Shooter Jennings effortlessly segues from country to metal and back in the song "Busted In Baylor County", playing part of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" (the Live At Irving Plaza version has a much longer portion of "Sweet Leaf" than the album version). Rebel Meets Rebel is said to be the last project Dimebag Darrel did before he was killed; it has The Cowboys From Hell playing and aging country outlaw David Allan Coe on lead vocals (and the song "Get Out Of My Life" has Hank III in it too). Jay Berndt of Kilgore Smudge now fronts a country band called The Brimstone Assembly, which offers a style of hardcore country similar to that of Hank III.

Holy shit. I need to get a life.

Why is a Napster Subscription Better Than Only Buying Music From an a la carte Music Store?

A Napster subscription gives you unlimited access to 3 million songs on your PC. For only a little bit more a month, a Napster To Go subscription allows you to transfer an unlimited amount of music to your PC and compatible MP3 player.

Think of it like a going to buffet. With all-you-can-eat music, you can try everything you want, whenever you want. One day you can take every album by Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Gwen Stefani or 50 Cent. The next day you can download a whole radio station or every Reggae album you want. Your music doesn't have to be limited by your budget anymore. With Napster, the whole world of music opens up to you for the price of one CD a month.

Of course, all Napster subscribers still have the option to purchase music to burn to CD or just keep permanently in their digital music collection. Subscribers get up to a 20% discount when purchasing multiple songs with Napster Track Packs.

With a Napster subscription, you can try music before you buy it.

I have an independent label. We have interns manage getting the releases out to all of the major sites.
We track royalties and sales data from all of them.
in addition to iTunes store, the catalog is available on most pay sites:
http://www.playittonight.com/
http://www.dancerecords.com/artists/Synthique
http://www.last.fm/
http://www.emusic.com/artist/11616/11616213.html
http://www.napster.com/view/artist/index.html?id=1 1638090

I just noticed that I have stuff on the WalMart music site. That's disturbing, since I don't remember anyone contacting them..
http://musicdownloads.walmart.com/catalog/servlet/ ArtistServlet?id=36183 //teh evil

Are you serious? I'm no Apple fan, but Apple has been releasing some impressive financials for the past couple years. Just this morning, Apple announced profits that far exceed market expectations, their stock is up 7% for the day, and they almost doubled their market share of Mac computers over the past few years (albeit, the share is still a miniscule 5% or so).

Compare Apple to Napster is a joke. Napster is losing ~$9 Million per quarter on ~$30 Million in revenue (reference here. This is hardly "making money hand over fist". Compare this to Apple, who just reported $2 BILLION in PROFIT on $19.3 BILLION in revenue ... and it's obvious that you must have mixed up your numbers a bit.

These stores will be powered by Snocap, which actually seems relatively competent. It's Shawn Fanning's attempt to go legit once he realized that Napster 2.0 was destined to be a spectacular failure. You can see a beta of the storefront at the Myspace page for The Format.

And how is this any different from what Napster is doing currently?

I know you're wrong about Rhapsody, as I see buttons to buy the songs when using a free account.
And I'm quite sure you can sign up for a "free account" that only allows you to buy songs with Napster. I uninstalled the program, so I can't check for sure, but I remember such an option. Also, see this.

From their FAQ

Is Napster's Free Service Available Outside of the United States?
The Napster free service is currently only available in the United States. We are working hard at expanding the free service to all Napster service territories. Until then, all users outside of the U.S. can preview 30-second clips of any song in our extensive music catalog.

If you are in the United Kingdom, Canada or Germany, the Napster subscription service is available in your country.

The Narchive is available to everyone. As a registered member, you can add your comments, ideas and opinions about music for the world to see.

1. Emule - This is one of the best we found out there. Hint (Search for server.met on google to update your server list)

2. Bearshare - Nice Gnutella client, lots of good hits

3. Limewire - Another Gnutella client. It even works on the Mac!

4. Shareaza - A beautiful Gnutella client with no spyware.

5. BitTorrent - Perfect for downloading movies, or that latest linux distro

6. KaZaa - Old favorite. Oh yea - Aussie users, you can't download - Yea Right!

7. Azureus - BitTorrent client that works on Mac, Linux, and Windows 8. Morpheus - Wow. They are still around? Wha happened!

9. Gnucleus - Open source Gnutella for you freeloading open source hippies out there - Yea I am talking about you

10. Napster - Ah, just put this one here to see if you are still reading, and I guess for shits and grins too

So there you have it folks. These are slim pickings. Get um while they still work!

Sorry, no. The iPod can't play protected WMAs ("Playsforsure"). Napster, Wal-Mart, MSN, and the other Microsoft partners use this format.

To the best of my knowledge, the only protected music store that's compatible with the iPod is iTunes. (There are stores that use unprotected files such as eMusic, but they tend to have limited selections.)

you obviously didn't understand napster terms and conditions

> Err, no! Obviously not. Otherwise when you upgrade your player, your entire collection would be written off.

Obviously? And this is obviously bad for the movie industry why?

Check out how Napster works sometime and tell me why the movie industry wouldn't jump to operate on the same system if they could.

The fact that the movie industry supports Blu-Ray is reason enough for me to be sure never to use it. After Sony's shenanigans with XCP and MediaMax, I sure as hell am not going to trust them getting their fingers into my movies too.

They keep their DRM in place, and they get access to sell the music in the catalogs. No other online music seller has said access.

I think you forgot a few.

BFD. It's Apple's format and Apple's player. Until Apple becomes a monopoly in the online store and music player markets, neither you nor Real have any grounds for complaint whatsoever.

Ridiculous. As a potential customer, I have every right to complain about a vendor whose products lock me in to their other products. I may not be able to sue, but I'm sure as hell not buying an iPod, and neither are my friends or relatives if I have anything to do with it.

Sorry, that's utter nonsense. Nothing prevents you from buying an iRiver or a Dell DigitalDJ or a Rio or an mp3 Walkman and buying music from Wal-Marts site or Buymusic.com or Napster or Real or even buying a regular pressed cd and putting it in whatever format you want.

Well, nothing except the DMCA or your contract with those other music stores. Napster's Terms & Conditions, for example, lets you burn CDs but forbids you to "copy, distribute, or transfer the track from that CD to any other media or device". If you're going to disregard that contract, you may as well disregard copyright law too and just get the files from your favorite P2P service.

Or is your point simply that you can choose not to buy an iPod, and instead get a player that works with more than one music store? Oh boy. You can choose not to get a Windows machine, a diamond ring, cable TV, or a phone line too, but that doesn't mean we should ignore the anticompetitive practices in those industries.

Or more likely (because of the convenience of the situation and the fact that they are obviously already familiar with the methods to accomplish this), simply downloading the CD's in question.

On a side note, how does this finding 'new bands' thing work anyway, type random words or spelling mistakes into Kazaa and poof new band is found?

The vast majority of people search for Britney Spears or Beastie Boys, not Random Band name. It's a fine arguement to use in theory and I'm sure someone will reply and talk about how they found Band X through a similar method and bought all 30 of their CD's (6 copies of each in fact) but realistically all this has ever been is a way for someone to download the latest top 40 hits without buying the album, justify it all you want (RIAA is evil, CD's are too expensive, only 1 good song per album etc etc), you are downloading an album that you didn't pay for. Period.

And for those people who are saying "Well we are only doing this because we have no viable alternative", that argument was made moot the day ITunes.com and Napster were released. At this point there are viable alternatives, and yet music piracy is still a HUGE business... As time goes on, if those methods prove to be profitable (as people say they will be), then more and better methods will be served.

"Tracks and Materials. The Tracks and Materials are owned by Napster, its business partners, affiliates and/or licensors, as applicable, and are protected by intellectual property laws....You may not authorize, encourage or allow any Tracks or Materials used or obtained by you to be reproduced, modified, displayed, performed, transferred, distributed or otherwise used by anyone else..."

"You may burn each Purchased Track to a CD up to seven (7) times as part of any particular playlist of songs.... Once you have burned a Purchased Track to a CD, you agree not to copy, distribute, or transfer the track from that CD to any other media or device."

"You may transfer a Purchased Track an unlimited number of times to portable devices that are compatible with the Service's Usage Rules and security requirements. Once you have transferred a Purchased Track to a compatible portable device, you agree not to copy, distribute, or transfer it from that device to any other media or device."

If it had a version of napster running on it that the RIAA couldn't disrupt or bust people for using

What problem do the major North American record labels have with the Napster Music Store?

Actually, right now, the largest online music distribution system is not run by a record company or a holding company.

It's run by a computer company, which to my knowledge doesn't own recording copyrights at ths time.

So is Napster, which used to be Roxio before they sold all their non-Napster products to Sonic. Real, Wal-Mart and Microsoft aren't exactly big record labels either -- more like software and retail.

Therefore, I don't get the argument that the present Internet music services aren't distributing independent music because they themselves own large quantities of content -- with the exception of Sony Connect, it's just not true, unless Wal-Mart has went out and bought some labels and I don't know about it.

There were many garbage mp3 files on napster at one time.

And now there are many garbage wma files.

You mean this right? That's like iTunes allowing you to keep five copies of your music on five computers.

I was talking about this where you can browse the library, playlists, and songs of another iTunes library within iTunes. Using built in Windows file sharing is not a feature of Napster; it is a feature of Windows. In which case you can argue any music library can be 'shared' by placing the library on a public share from which any client can see the songs, but not the playlists, the ratings, or the library.

FWIW I think Napster is easier to use too.

I don't.

None of the supported music players on napsters page http://www.napster.com/compatible_devices/index.ht ml(there are 7 total) seem to hold more than 20 gigs, although several of them support video playback, so on one hand, i could pay "$10,000 to fill an iPod" or I could just not be able to store that much music, well, I guess it is a great money saving method.

You forgot:

2.5. Post an announcement about the crack on the front page of your website.

No, it quite certainly is still illegal to abuse. A subscription to Napster gives you the legal right to use the songs you want for as long as you pay a subscription to Napster. You are not paying for the song; you are paying for the right to RENT the song.

http://www.napster.com/terms.html

Even if it was illegal, dont try to pretend that it still wouldnt be IMMORAL. Does it really matter if your country doesn't have specific laws keeping you from doing this?

Does the artist of the song get paid? No? Well, arent you kind of screwing him/her over? I think the answer is clear.

This would kill it for me even if I was excited about their subscription model: they're only compatible with WinXP and Win2000.

Screw 'em.

Nice marketing idea they have there, though, implying that the huge number of iPod owners are idiots. That'll win them a lot of love, too.

Check this out:
You pay $275 for the Creative 60GB player

Then you pay $0 to use the 14 day free trial of Napster To-Go to load it up with 60 GB of audio.

Then you discontinue the Napster service and for $275 you have 20,000 (60GB / 3MB) songs to listen to whenever you want.

Thanks Napster, I guess you _still_ are the source for free music after all!!!

(I'll stick to iPod and iTunes, thanks anyway)

Never mind the fact that the service isn't Mac compatible.

(1) From the Napster website: "*It is necessary to maintain a Napster subscription in order to continue access to songs downloaded through the Napster service."
(2) This assumes that I couldn't just stop my account and start it up later. Maybe you can.

"Indeed, Napster's To Go subscription service allows buyers to essentially rent an unlimited amount of music for $15 per month. A subscription-based service will be built into the latest version of Microsoft Windows; for between $10 and $20, users will access songs for a monthly fee but will be unable to burn them onto CDs.
The only way they'll be able to listen to them is via a digital music player such as the iPod, or on a computer.

That's nice except that according to Napster: You can't listen to NAPSTER-downloaded songs on an iPod.
So you won't really be able to listen to them via a digital music player such as the iPod.

more confusion for the consumer who doesn't follow this stuff blow by blow.

you still need some media to transfer the original data. the CD will remain.

Perhaps you haven't noticed these growing new trends.

I think that iTunes and Napster are just targeting different groups of people, with quite different music listening habits.

There are people, like me, who listen the same groups for years, collect their albums (in my case in vinyl!), know their history etc. This kind of people would never rent music, an album for them is something they want to have in their collection and listen forever.

On the other hand there are many people who treat music as fashion, watch the latest hits on MTV, buy only singles (who needs an album to hear just one song), know only 2-3 hits from each group, change favourite group each month, etc. For such people the ability to hear all new hits with a fixed subscription is very appealing whereas song expiration doesn't matter. Nobody listen to the same pop hit after a month.

So I think there is room for both systems. Indeed Napster also provides pay-per-song sales (they call it Napster Light, see bottom of page). And I won't be surprised if I see Apple launching subscription services in the near future.

MP3 != WMA. These are both very specific things. Had they just said "songs", or "music" it would not be an issue. They chose to say MP3 and I fail to see how thats not an outright lie.

Um, did you WTFC (watch the f*ing commercial)? They clearly do say you can download "songs" (not mp3's) to your "compatible mp3 player" (that last part's a little misleading, sure, but certainly not an outright lie, since by the using the term "compatible mp3 player" they obviously mean "an mp3 player that can also play wma format.")

I'm not a fan of the Napster service, but I do think they make a good point. If we're talking about the realm of legal music downloading, a monthly rental service clearly does start to make more sense as you download more songs. Sure, w/ ITunes you get to own the songs, but if one was to theoretically pay the $10K to fill an IPod, that same amount would pay for the Napster service for over 55 years. Still, there are definitely a number of disadvantages to using a subscription service long-term - they can raise their prices any time, there's no guarantee that the company will stay in business for as long as you want to listen to your music, etc, which is why I'll stay away from them for the forseeable future.

Actually, when you use the Napster service you also have the option to purchase "most" tracks (don't know what that really means) for an additional $0.99 per track. So it really depends on whether you find that $15 a month for essentially an unlimited free trial (until you quit the service) of all the music a value added.

But as another poster pointed out, the music you "purchase" in iTMS or Napster is still not really yours, because you're still restricted by their DRM from doing a lot of things (protected by fair use) with the music you payed for. You're still tied to certian supported platforms and players, restricted in what computers you can move it to, and forbidden from reselling. Personally, I chose Emusic, because I actually own the music I pay for (well, in the sense you own the music on a CD anyway) and can do what I want with it (within the confines of law). There are other services like this out there too. Of course, many major labels/bands won't allow anyone to actually sell their music in a digital format not encumbered by DRM.

After listening to Apple's Q1'05 Earnings call I have to say that I am concerned that the music stores besides iTunes will soon go the way of so many dot-coms. Here's two reasons:
- Apple stated in the call they have 70% market share in on-line downloads.
- Apple stated in the call they posted a small profit on the sale of now >230,000,000 songs (admittedly, these were not all in Q1'05).

If the $0.99/9.99 model is so razor thin that one company with 70% of the market is eaking by, how can six other companies who share the remaining 30% of the market hope to survive?

Napster seems to be in the lead (don't they have about 10% market share?) but it is primarily due to the subscription model they have, not selling tracks/albums. Sounds like an opportunity for Apple to swoop in and service the sub-market for subscribers to me.

But back on subject, the Creative statement that they have some type of advantage because their player submits to the DRM of half a dozen music stores that are loosing money just says to me that Creative is tightening their seatbelt on a sinking ship.

Good for SkyOS, possibly, rather a non-event from a Firefox perspective, at least numbers-wise.

That's right. SkyOS is too small of a project to be any of significance. And everybody knows no small projects ever become big ones, right?

I don't need a point, it's your job to come up with whatever conclusion you want to come up with. I stand by the facts I presented -- they're all verifiable in the press and on the web.

The fact that Hop-on still has a web site with cell phones on it doesn't bother me. It's been three years already and its web site still doesn't have a disposable cardboard phone for under $30, a claim that made them one of the most heavily hyped companies in the world. If a web site like Napster or a small outfit like Virgin Mobile has its own brand, it's entirely possible for such a successful scam like Hop-on to still be worth something and even have its own "line" of phones.