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New Napster Off To A Solid Start
Anonymous Superhero writes "From Wired magazine Napster 2.0 has a sleek design and makes exploring new music a pleasure. The most nagging problem? The confusing licensing issues. A review by Katie Dean." I haven't tried it yet - still using the iTunes store.
Uh huh...
We're sorry, Napster is not currently compatible with your operating system.
Napster is currently compatible with Windows XP/2000.
Windows 95, Windows NT and the Mac OS are not supported at this time.
If you are planning on using Napster on this computer, the service will not be compatible and you should discontinue registration. If you will use Napster on a different computer, with a compatible operating system, please continue.
No thanks, buddy...
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It doesn't use the common MP3 format. Instead it uses the more proprietary and stiflying WMA format. Which, in my experience has proven inferior to every other format available. (MP3, MP3Pro, Ogg, AAC, etc) Though, to it's credit it does have a wider range of device support than Apple's AAC, but it was a mistake to not go with MP3 which would have provided even greater support and better quality.
Something intelligent here.
http://www.napster.com/terms.html
If you are on their monthly service you keep the music only so long as you subscribe to their service and cannot burn it (or I think transfer it to a music player) without paying the additional charge.
It also reports how many times you've played each track to headquarters.
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From the article: I look forward to an even better digital music experience as the licensing hitches are resolved.
And that's the beauty of the Apple solution: all of the licensing hitches have already been worked out. Consumers want predictability, and iTunes is the only one that provides it now.
The big problem with Napster (and BuyMusic for that matter), and the reason iTunes surpasses both of them: Ease of Use. I don't want to have to read the fine print on every single song. I just want to find it and grab it:
"Despite its flexibility, the service can also be confusing. Some songs in the Napster library can only be streamed, while others are only available for a 99-cent download, even if you're paying for the streaming service. Which songs fall into each category isn't clearly spelled out. Some users are liable to think they are signing up for unlimited access to the Napster library, only to find out that some tracks must be purchased separately."
" I was listening to Lucinda Williams' album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road when I ran into a glitch. I could hear all of "Lake Charles," but only 30 seconds of "I Lost It," a song from the same album. It turns out "I Lost It" was only available if I opted for the a la carte feature. I either had to buy the track for 99 cents or be content hearing just 30 seconds of it. What a pain."
That is my biggest complaint. I decided to sign up for their premium service for a few months, since I was quitting eMusic anyway so the net cost was negligible. Once you join, many songs' icons change from "Buy song" to "Buy only", which means you can't stream or download them without paying $1. OTOH, there is a bunch of stuff that is streaming only. (For example, the Pet Sounds Sessions by the Beach Boys.) I don't think this is made sufficiently clear before you sign up, although I'm sure they would argue it's in the fine print somewhere.
Also, just some more info on the tracks you can download on the $9.99 unlimited plan. If you view the file info in Windows Media Player, they are tagged in the DRM as "no transfer to portable", "no burn to CD", and with 6 week play expirations. Presumably that is renewed automatically if you keep up the subscription.
These are not available by *ahem* cheaper means
*ahem* *cough* *HOTLINE* *CARRACHO* *KDX* *cough* *VARIOUS DEDICATED SERVERS*
Excuse me there. Please ignore that outburst. I am glad to see, citizen, that you are choosing to take the high road and pay for your audio-book purchases in a legal, moral way. Anyhow, even were such things available by the "cheaper means" of which you speak, surely it would be a great hassle and inconvenience to actually obtain anything. Carry on.
I did not test Napster's answer to the iPod, the Samsung Napster player. I only checked out the music service.
Here are a few:
click
click
click
Here is a recent review from John Fried who compared the different sites head-to-head
Here's my review, which I attempted to post as a new topic but got denied....
:) I also like the notion that my purchased music are simply DRM-protected local files and I can play/manage them along with my local files.
Below is a short review I have done of the three legit online music services I have tried - Rhapsody, iTunes, and Napster 2.
Rhapsody
As a s/w developer who sits in front of his computer all day, I'm a big fan of the online streaming services and a huge Rhapsody advocate. I consider it the best $10 that I spend a month and use it for at least 6 hrs a day M-F. I've also ripped my entire CD collection to a FireWire drive connected to a fileserver I have setup in my home network. In total, I have about 7000 mp3s
ripped at 192kbps VBR which take up about 37GB of storage.
But Rhapsody has it's shortcomings.....
- no portable support
- no way to play local media files
- purchased music can be burned to a CD once and then it's gone
- no one click album purchase
I live with most of these by simply ripping the CDs I burn from Rhapsody which allows me to mix them with my local tracks and upload them to my Samsung YP-30SH MP3 player. I have also purchased the licensed version of RealOne (w/o all the subscription crap) to manage my local files. I'm not a big fan of Real the company but RealOne has great ID3 and file management capabilities. I've tried all of the others (e.g. MusicMatch) and I simply can't find another media player which does what RealOne does for me. I should mention that most of these capabilities came from RealJukebox which has then merged with RealPlayer to form RealOne. Unfortunately, it is now bordering on considerable bloatware and I fear that since Real has purchased listen.com (i.e. Rhapsody) they are planning on merging the Rhapsopdy client into it which will likely result in both clients becoming less usable.
iTunes
When iTunes for Windows launched, I checked it out from a curiosity perspective. The U/I is very well done as one would expect from Apple and the purchase process is seamless. Apple has made it very easy for people to spend money
But iTunes has it's shortcomings......
- iPod-only support
- no streaming service
- AAC format which has very limited industry support
I have seen so many messages blasting M$oft and WMA and DRM, and the same people giving accolades to Apple and iTunes. But from my perspective, iTunes/AAC is 10x more proprietary than WMA and Apple has not been anywhere near as forthcoming with developers as M$oft has been over WMA. There are at least a dozen MP3 players on the market supporting WMA and only one supporting AAC. It seems that since Apple is "cool", it's OK for them to be signicantly more proprietary than the "uncool" Microsoft.
As far as DRM is concerned - yes, it's a pain, but get over it - it's not going away.
Napster 2
So given my views on Rhapsody and iTunes, I was eagerly awaiting the launch of Napster 2. The advance information available seemed to indicate that it had everything I like about Rhapsody and more (e.g. portable support). I had decided that if it actually was what it's PR made it out to be, I'd bite the bullet and get a WMA-capable MP3 player.
But boy was I wrong......
I downloaded the Napster 2 client first thing yesterday morning and immediately felt a sense of deja-iTunes-vu. They seemed to have attempted to replicate the iTunes interface in almost every way but in a way that seems much more "scattered-brained". At this time, I'd like to say a word about these services' U/Is. Perhaps it's my old way of thinking, but I really like Rhapsody's album and artist-orientated U/I. Everything is laid out very logically and navigation among artists, albums, genres, related artists,
etc. is v
PC Mag likes Napster too. But the user comments (at the bottom of the page) seem to disagree. PC Mag also has reviews of ITunes and MusicMatch.
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>> For 1 $ a song you can download them and burn
>> them to disks, but you "cannot" transfer them
>> between computers...
Incorrect. You can sync songs between a maximum of 3 computers using the Sync/Restore option on the pulldown 'My Account' menu
>> What i want to know is can the songs
>> downloaded by the monthy service be burned to
>> disks.
Only if you use a stream ripper type program to rip them while playing to a standard mp3 (or other format) file. The Napster client itself does not allow you to burn songs downloaded as a part of the subscription.
The best part about buying audiobooks on iTunes is that when you go to burn a particularly large audiobook to CD, iTunes will automatically span the audiobook across multiple CDs, if need be. btw, "Benjamin Franklin, Citizen" was worth the $7.95 (and 2 blank CDRs :)!
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Seems they've thought of this.
Upon installation you are asked to supply your connection speed for streaming purposes.
The maximum available is 96 so stream capturing isn't really an option.
Stream Ripper is a great streaming media ripping tool. It works with winamp too, pretty slick.
http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/sr32/
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
Many more audio books are available at Audible.com. They use a monthly fee of $15 for any one book and one periodical or $20 for any two books plus discounts on purchases outside of your subscription plan. You can also purchase books without a monthly subscription at prices comparable to iTunes. If you ditch your subscription, you still keep your purchased books and can even redownload them. The DRM is the same as, and playable through, iTunes; 3 computers authorized at any one time, iPod-able, and CD burnable. There are also other MP3 players that support Audible books including Rios, Palms, and Pocket PCs. (I read in their newsletter that their own Audible Mobile Player is in the Smithsonian as one of the first Internet-based spoken audio system) ;-)
--if you get a subscription, reference "bizzarobot" and I'll get a free book.
Puretracks, is a canadian legal music service.
I signed up early to be "notified" when Napster was released, being promised 5 "free downloads". I got my email, followed its link and directions, and downloaded my 5 songs.
And noticed a nice credit card charge for the songs appeared in my statement.
Thanks, Napster. Goodbye, Napster.
MORTAR COMBAT!
Use a CD-RW. That is what I do when I buy a music on iTuens and burn it to a CD. iTunes will burn track information on the CD so when I rip the CD back to MP3's none of the track info (Artist, Song Title, CD Title, etc.) is lost. When I'm finised I erase the CD-RW so it can be used again.
Actually, Accoring to the currency converter I use, it's 33.75 USD. You americans should stop being so arrogant and notice what's happening with your currency. Click here for a nice graph of what's happening with the Canadian Dollar
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Dolby licensing for MPEG-4 AAC:
- MPEG-4 AAC licensing
Reading the FAQ, you realise that you still have to pay something, due to Dolby's patents.
AAC implementations:
- FAAC
- XMMS AAC plugin
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Advanced Encode Decode Tools allows you to convert files to/from wma, mp3, ogg, wav, ac3, vob. It will also remove DRM restrictions on WMA files when converting to mp3/ogg. It's $30, but quite a bit simpler than what you're suggesting. :)
IANAL(YYY), but I don't think the legality (or lack thereof) of file conversion technology is as blatantly illegal as you think. Fair Use of copyrighted materials is still a pretty shady area of the law, but it's not completly gone yet. I use the AEDT to convert DRM-ized WMA files from Napster in to MP3s so I can play them in iTunes (my preferred media player). I'm not sharing the files or reselling them or anything. Just trying to use the software that fits me the best. Does this automatically make me a criminal, or a good consumer because I didn't use a free P2P system to get the files?
Nothing hampers a programmer's creativity as much as a compiler.
Napster 2.0's subscription plan sounds great. They have over 500K songs, and for $9.95/month or so you can download as many as you want, as well as share purchased music and play lists with other subscribers. This comes as a direct shot to emusic for their recent announcement that they would start limiting the number of downloads/month on their subscription service. I will not be signing up however. Napster sells their music in the Micro$oft proprietary WMA format. I don't like the format or the idea behind it, and so I will not be purchasing any WMA music. Apple's iTunes Music Store sells a version of AAC which is based on an open standard, but the codec for which is only available (hardware wise) on the iPod. Since the iPod is, by far, the best hard drive based compressed music player in existence, this is a good thing for Apple. And conversely, since the aforementioned iPod does not support WMA, it does not bode well for Napster.
Common sense isn't.
Actually, according the Part VIII of the Canadian Copyright Act it's entirely legal to download music from the internet. It states that it is legal due to the levys placed on recordable media, so it's unclear as to how this applies to copying to a hard drive (for which there is no levy), but it does state that copying music for personal use is legal. The down side is, there is a levy for hard drives and the recordable media in portable mp3 players in the works. I can't find the article at this time, but there are quotes floating around saying that once the levy is in place, the price of an iPod, for example, would be raised by $77 depending on the size of the hard drive inside.
Any SDMI-compliant WMA player should play the bought Napster tunes.
I have tried it personally on a 2-3 year old Nike PSA Play 60 (which is really a Rio 600) and it worked perfectly. I did have to use Windows Media Player to do the transfer, but I have to use that to transfer MP3's anyway, since the Nike software sucks.
hey, i've been using this service for a while, solid download speeds, nice selection and price cant be beat, seems to be 100% legal too. :)
http://www.allofmp3.com, check it out, i'm not representing them btw
I see no reason for anyone to get excited over the second coming of Napster. Fact is, everyone knows the first one was all about making music trading easy and FREE. Now, mention Napster 2 and almost everyone either says "Huh? Did they win a court case and manage to come back again, offering free music?" or "Oh yeah, the guys that got busted over piracy the first time around, so now they're trying to sell music, cashing in on their old name."
Meanwhile, Napster's founder is on to other projects (most notably, Ryze - the business contact network).
Apple has clout and respect with the masses, because when they offer a music store, people simply think "Cool, online music purchasing brought to us by the guys that gave us the way cool iPod portable music player!" There's no negative "baggage" like a Napster has.
BTW - has anyone used www.ryze.com and found it useful/worthwhile? I gave it a shot, and personally, I found it mostly annoying. The concept was great.... but it seems to draw "wanna-bes", "psychics/mystics/religious zealots" and loads of hucksters trying to sell you their self-help or getting-started type books/videos. I was hoping to do some serious business networking with people, like myself, doing computer consulting/upgrading/etc. Instead, I got invites to join message forums run by people doing motivational seminars and selling insurance.
I know I've started using them here in Australia, which comes to about $21.50 per disc. Yes, much better than HMV's import prices.