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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.)

17 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. CDN$1.19? by smonner · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why would you start a new music service with higher prices than the existing competition? A lot of PureTracks' songs (though admittedly not all) are CDN$0.99. They must really be relying on name-brand recognition, though I doubt they are going to get much beyond "but, but, songs were free on Napster!" Still, nice to see competition, even if only of the inept kind. Now if they would just let me have my songs on both my home and work computers at the same time...

  2. uh oh, it's the plastics! by B3ryllium · · Score: 4, Funny

    Napster used to be so cool, but now it hangs out with the plastics and makes fun of regular people.

    What happened, Napster, what happened?

  3. Cheap! by darth_MALL · · Score: 5, Informative

    $1.19 Can works out to 0.86 USD. Cheaper than the US non-subscriber version. Still not cheap enuff if you ask me.

    1. 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?

      --
      If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
  4. Why pay? by hunterx11 · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    --
    English is easier said than done.
  5. Canadian RIAA... by mythosaz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, at least they only sue you for about $.72 on the dollar...

  6. 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.

    --

    ---
    I support spreading santorum
  7. 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)

    --
    Evolution or ID?
  8. Finally! I can legally download ... by burgburgburg · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anne Murray
    Gordon Lightfoot
    Rush
    ...
    Celine Dion
    ....
    ......
    Why do I need this again?

    1. Re:Finally! I can legally download ... by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 4, Funny
      Why do I need this again?

      Give them a ten and you can get a Nickleback.

      Thanks folks, I'll be here all week.

      --
      "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
  9. Downloading seems legal; uploading might not be by Saucepan · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Downloading is apparently legal in Canada, but uploading might not be.

    Canadians are currently permitted to borrow a friend's CD and make copies for personal, non-commercial use. However they are not allowed to make a copy for someone else. It is widely believed that this allows downloading but not uploading.

    The CRIA has launched John Doe lawsuits against uploaders but recently suffered a legal setback when a judge ruled that they had failed to provide sufficient evidence of a copyright violation to subpoena the identities of some anonymous uploaders. However, members of the federal government have promised new legislation to close what they call "legal loopholes". That may just have been election year pandering. We'll have to wait and see.

    In any case there are many Canadians who would willingly pay a reasonable amount per song to purchase music via download in order to get known quality, selection, and lack of liability. I would be one of them except that I refuse to pay money for DRM-encumbered files -- if I pay to buy something, I expect to own it.

    1. Re:Downloading seems legal; uploading might not be by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 4, Informative

      Uploading was ruled legal in a later decision. The judge equated it to putting a photocopier in a library. Just because you put the material in your shared folder doesn't mean you are actively distributing it.

      --
      Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
  10. Yet another iTunes plug by tokachu(k) · · Score: 5, Informative

    0.99 USD = $1.37 CDN

    ...so technically Napster Canada is cheaper than iTunes. But this is assuming you only listen to music on your computer. They charge extra to transfer the song, unlike iTunes, where it's the same price whether you burn it to a CD, transfer it to your iPod, or whatever.

    Napster and the others need to deal with the fact that they've been beaten by Apple.

  11. 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.

  12. Browser detection? by AdrianFletcher666 · · Score: 4, Funny
    Apparently I am running Windows XP on a mac... I had no idea.
    Thank you for visiting Sympaticomusicstore.puretracks.com

    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.
    Puretracks is currently working to make our service available to Mac users.
    --
    Adrian
  13. Please mod parent down: incorrect by Rumor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm sorry, Chess, but you're referring to the same case as Saucepan, and the judge did not rule that uploading is legal. He expressed that it was similar to placing a photocopying machine in a library, yes, in an allusion to a recent Supreme Court of Canada case (CCH vs. Law Society of Upper Canada) but this opinion was purely obiter dicta, meaning that it does not have binding force. This case was tossed by the judge on evidentiary merits, or the lack thereof, so no new legal precedent has been set.

    At present, the law still suggests that uploading is a violation of copyright with no exemption under the Private Copying provision.