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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.)

6 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. 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.

  3. 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.
  4. Canadian RIAA... by mythosaz · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  5. 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.

  6. 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.