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Napster Canada Launched

Posted by timothy on from the bare-naked-ladies-avenged dept.

PunchMonkey writes "Just days after the Napster UK launch, Napster Canada is now online. Tracks start at CDN$1.19 and albums at CDN$9.95. Interactive streaming is also available for the first time in Canada for CDN$9.95 a month. Napster is the the third online music service to be launched in Canada (following PureTracks and ArchambaultZik), not including the branded Puretracks sites Sympatico Music Store and PureTracks from Telus." (Be prepared for a trio of rejection notices if you're neither running nor spoofing IE under Windows.)

15 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Why pay? by hunterx11 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now IANAL and IANAC, but I thought that music downloading (though not sharing) was legal in Canada.

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    English is easier said than done.
    1. Re:Why pay? by i_should_be_working · · Score: 2, Insightful

      maybe alot of Canadians, ones who don't spend time on slashdot, think it's just as illegal here as in the states.

      i remember some puretracks adds where their pitch was that we should buy from them instead of 'illegally' downloading so that we don't get sued.

  2. $9.95? Used CDs still cheaper by CaptainPinko · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And I can get a physical copy with pretty linear notes to go with it.

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    Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
  3. Re:uh oh, it's the plastics! by p00p+at+instable.net · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Ehh. It's not the same Napster... they are just saying Napster for name recognition. All publicity is good publicity :)

  4. GAH...where is my Canadian iTunes by truffle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Come on iTunes get it in gear! I'm still waiting for mac iTunes.

    The leader in online music sales can't seem to sell internationally.

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    I support spreading santorum
  5. why do it? by millahtime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Who would someone pay to "rent" a song. If you cancel the service you loose the song. Unless they got a better license than any of the other services (besides iTMS)

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    Evolution or ID?
  6. Rejected by loomis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As the poster mentions, non-ie browsers get rejected by the Telus service.

    "Thank you for visiting Puretracks from TELUS" Currently our website supports Internet Explorer 5.0 and above on the Windows operating system (Win 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / 2003), and is available to Canadian residents only."

    "We value our Mac audience, however the Windows Media player for the Mac platform is not currently compatible with Microsoft protected audio content."

    No mention of other OS users. It still really bothers me that companies are too stupid to write websites that are standards-compliant and work on all platforms.

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    "The television is the retina of the mind's eye" - Videodrome
  7. Russian Napster... by Canabinol · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Forget Napster, iTunes, et al.

    The Russian equivalent to iTunes - allofmp3.com - is the way forward for all your music needs!!

    You pay 1 cent a megabyte so $10 gets you a gigabyte of mp3 download - and you can pay using Paypal in case you're worried about your Credit Card getting stolen by a shady Russkie...

    Cheap, cheerful and legal (at least in the eyes of Russian law) and they have a great selection (better than iTunes as it includes European chart music also).

    1. Re:Russian Napster... by rduke15 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      allofmp3.com would be almost perfect: non-protected mp3, at the bitrate of your choice, for an unbeatable price.

      The only problem is that it doesn't look like being very "legal", despite whate the site pretends.

      In fact, my problem is not whether it is technically legal or not. It is that the money certainly doesn't go to the artists. So it's just the same as non-legal.

      What we want is high-quality non-DRM files, and knowing that the artists get their share from what we pay of it. But the companies don't seem to understand that, so it will continue to be P2P, allofmp3.com, et al.

    2. Re:Russian Napster... by jimmy+page · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Forget what the (Allofmp3.com) says. There are other sites claiming it is legal. And they give a much better description of why.

      [Museekster] http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm#Is%20All ofmp3%20legal?

      I do have to agreee with you regarding the rate of payment though - it seems awfully low in USD. Maybe it's OK when converted to Rubles?

  8. I will purchase music online: by big_groo · · Score: 2, Insightful
    IF (and only if)
    1. No restrictions on what I do with it.(any player)
    2. I can use the OS of my choice (Slackware)
    3. The price more accurately reflects the production/distribution costs.
    4. There has to be something worth purchasing.

    In other words...never.

    1. Re:I will purchase music online: by nwbvt · · Score: 2, Insightful
      "1. No restrictions on what I do with it.(any player)"

      I think people should be more flexible on this. All you really want to do is listen to the music, right? So is it really so wrong to accept some limitations that do not effect that in exchange for the advantages of online music?

      "3. The price more accurately reflects the production/distribution costs."

      Thats a bit difficult to calculate, considering intellectual property requires a near zero marginal cost and a (relatively) large capital investment. So for a large record label selling millions of Brittney Spears (or whatever pop group is popular) songs, that cost would be low. For a small label with less popular (though not necessarily lower quality groups) artists, they would have to charge a lot more just to break even. That seems a bit backwards to me, and may make it difficult for smaller labels to compete.

      I agree on the other points though.

      --
      Mathematics is made of 50 percent formulas, 50 percent proofs, and 50 percent imagination.
  9. Hey wtf, the Dayglo Abortions in a Napster Ad? by smcavoy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I really wasn't expecting hear that tune whilst watching the flash animation.
    I would've thought they would've been more picky about who uses their songs (i.e. a company that is in bed with all the big evil record companies).

  10. Re:Cheap! by MKalus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah well,

    too bad though that I don't get paid in USD but in Canadian Dollars.

    99cents Canadian are exactly that to me: 99 cents.

    Or do you think you should pay $1.39 because it's still cheaper than the 99pence the guy in the UK would be paying?

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    If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
  11. Re:CDN$1.19? by Bricklets · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What I have a hard time understanding is why the inconsistency in pricing. The Internet is worldwide. It's not any harder or doesn't take any longer if I access Napster from the US or the UK. There are no physical mediums to transport, no physical distances that stand between you and your music. I would think in theory Napster shouldn't price the music any differently for each country. Yeah, yeah, I know that there are different royalities to be paid in each country, etc, etc, etc, but I think this just highlights how out of date the worldwide music industry is.

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    Little Bricklets