Review of Pay Napster

An Anonymous Coward writes: "A beta tester for the recently released subscription version of Napster has anonymously posted his impressions of the new service. He finds it remarkably similar to the old one, both good '... browsing through a real person's music collection, sending them messages and recommending them new music' and bad '... broken tracks, cancelled transfers and a complete inability to stream or preview tracks.' The service allows 50 tracks a month, but there was little decent content to fill those slots. Messages to other beta testers found mixed reactions among fellow users. Still, the writer holds out some optimism for Napster's chances."

Re:Napster, napster, napster...

[halo8]

No he is right.
and there was a /. articale (i couldnt find it) that stated that the "RIAA has lost %30 of sales" and it was on CNN and stuff, but if you read the really ultra microscopic print. they lost %30 of all casset signles sales. but that CD sales had actually gone way up. they just focused on the bad and anounced that to the world. and /. was like who buys signles? who buys cassets? but did CNN cover that.. NOOOO of course not. oh well.

Zeropaid.com

[Grassferry49]

This whole paying for music that you can't use theory is bogus. Everyone should take a look at http://www.Zeropaid.com. It has everything you need for your p2p needs.

Re:What's the point

[rohdem]

Change the registry key
hkey_current_user\software\morpheus\limitbitrate
to 0 and your bitrate troubles will be over.

Re:Who wants to pay for Napster?

[Orange Amphibian]

I think everyone here missed the fact that he was talking about CDs. It was sarcasm. Sorry to be so "smart guy" like, but until they create a puncuation for sarcasm, we just need to keep on our toes.

I suggest the plus sign, because it could signify sarcasm while being sarcastic itself.

Go ahead mod me down for being off topic, just when I was was feeling good about my 2 point karma.

Re:50 tracks a month?

[fader]

there are people out there who want to "do the right thing" and pay for their music

Okay, so let's see. I can use Napster for an undisclosed fee (I'm betting on the neighborhood of $10/month) and get 50 tracks, which I have to get by trusting that the person on the other end ripped correctly. Plus I have to donate my own bandwith to do it. (Excuse me? I'm paying them to use my bandwidth? Did I miss where this is a good deal?)

Or I can go to emusic.com [emusic.com] and pay $9.99 per month and legally download as many MP3s as my greedy heart desires. Plus they're categorized and ripped by people whose job it is to do this all day, so they're presumably of good quality. Plus I can download entire albums at once. Plus I don't have to share my collection with anyone, or let anyone scan my hard drive.

Hmm, tough choice. Napster is doomed. (Disclaimer: I don't own any emusic stock. I don't even know if they're publicly traded. I don't even have an account there. So there.)

Re:Napster Died a long time ago...

[furiousgeorge]

>>Seriously, does anybody expect this
>>pay-for-mp3's thing to take off?

You know - I'd be willing to pay.

Seriously, for $1 or $2 per song I'd probably spend a fortune. I totally believe that the artists (and the record companies --- they do pay for the promotion and all the associated crap even though they are pure evil) deserve to be paid.

BUT........

Nobody who is putting together one of these systems is interested in that. They want to put a bazillion restrictions on me. It's in a proprietary,locked format. You can't dump it to your portable MP3 player. You can't burn it onto a CD to play it into a car. If you cancel your subscription you LOSE ALL THE MUSIC YOU'VE PAID FOR (No - i'm not making this one up. I believe it's PressPlay that does that. You only have access to the tracks you've paid for as long as you keep kicking up monthly cash).

So instead of getting some of my money - they don't get any. They just don't get it - and I don't know if they ever will. If you're going to try to rob me of the basic freedoms I have with CD based audio, there is ZERO chance you're going to get me on board.

Sorry folks - they days of paying $15-20 for a CD (and at LEAST $6-8 more compared to the exact same album on tape) are over. You've milked that cow long enough.

If i could pay for the mp3 tracks i wanted i bet i'd end up spending at least $30 a month. (I listen to a lot of club music that i couldn't buy in a store because it's just not there). Instead - I spend nothing and slurp it all off the net. I honestly can't remember the last CD I purchased (not including blanks of course )

The sooner the labels realize this the better. But they won't.
They'll keep kicking and screaming, sponsoring new legislation trying to put the genie back in the bottle.

Too late. Sorry. So sad.

Re:.nap encrypted? why bother?

[geekoid]

because you have taken a aggresive precaution to protect your IP, otherwise you risk loosing your copyright.
News Flash, the DMCA does apply overseas, if they have a treaty with the US. remember that whole DeCss thing in Norway?
Of course if you don't sign the treaty, your a terrorist, but I digress.
Plau as a CEO not only have your protested your companine property, you have a way to go after people who you believe is taking all that money away.

NOPE your wrong

[k2x]

Remember you are downloading a file in .nap format. The napster player will (initially) know how to decode the .nap file, where I'm pretty sure they use some kind of integrity checker before it gets played. Plus, if you cancel it, the file will probably not get saved anyway.

Of course, I'm also pretty sure the hackers will learn the .nap format, find out a way to save incomplete files, and decode/play the file themselves;)

History teaches us that only time will tell.

If you truly want to support your favorite band...

[Newer Guy]

Then go buy a ticket for their next concert. Even if you can'y go, buy one anyway. I can tell you for a FACT that buying one ticket puts more cash into their pocket then buying a dozen of their CD's. Screw the record labels. Screw Hilary Rosen (oh wait, guys can't do her LOL). Put the money where it belongs..in the pockets of the performers!

THE RIAA SHOULD SUPPLY THE MUSIC

[xerid]

Personaly, I think the RIAA should supply the music, in full CDA format, not this lossy mp3 compression. Hell, we are doing all the work for them. Using our network resources, our systems, ripping and compressioning - and sometimes the quality isn't even good for mp3. The only way I will pay money is if it's coming off their NAPSTER servers with NO loss of quality. Why should we grind our fingers and have them reap the benefits.
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o|oo U RIAA