Napster Tries Again

intheory writes "As it states on the site, The Cat is Almost Back. Napster, following a singificant delay, beleagured by legal and ethical rhetoric, reappears as a pay-to-play service. With some similarities to Apple's iTunes, will Napster regain its place as the premiere music distribution service? Additionally, the man behind the magic, Shawn Fanning, receives a thoughtful write up." I'm pretty wary of the new Napster, as the only thing it seems to share with its predecessor is the name.

It's Pressplay

[Anonymous Coward]

Roxio bought PressPlay and Napster's "brand". Then they re-launch PressPlay with the Napster's name.

There ya go. It's just PressPlay with a different face and a different owner. Same tech team.

Napster spoof

[pheph]

Downhill battle [downhillbattle.org] has posted a great spoof of what the new napster website might look like [downhillbattle.org]

Now that we have to pay for napster, it's not that cool anymore.
But now that I'm out of college, I'm not that cool anymore either.

Nuts to that, use CD Baby

[kevin_conaway]

Ive said it before and ill say it again, cdbaby.com kicks ass. They let you listen to 2 minutes of 5-7 songs off an album to see if you like it, if you do buy it, if not go on to the next one! All their albums are reviewed by the editors to give you description of what the music is like. Plus, after your first purchase, they send you a free cd with each purchase thereafter (usually a mix cd which is pretty good.)

Disclaimer: all though this read like an ad, its not. Im just a satisfied customer.

This is a great alternative to emusic and such pay for play setups where you waste a quota trying to find music you like.

Re:Napster incompatible OS

[LostCluster]

They appear to have designed for XP, and just happened to not have used anything incompatible with 2000 in the process so it works there too. XP and 2000 are very close relatives, while 98 is a whole different beast.

You have iTunes Music Store beta

[yerricde]

Here's what I got whilest using my TiBook

Please don't complain about lack of the new Napster on Mac OS X because 1. remember that it took a while for Napster to make a Mac client for its old network, and 2. as a TiBook owner, you're in on the beta test of iTunes Music Store, which seems equivalent to what the new Napster offers ($1 singles, $10 albums).

They also don't even mention Windows 98

Because of its (lack of a) security model, Microsoft's Windows 9x operating systems aren't that great for much other than running legacy DOS apps.

Animations

[Lizard_King]

Check out the Napster Animations [napster.com]. They're pretty funny =)

my impression of Pressplay

[cmh7r]

I've been a happy subscriber to pressplay for the last several months and have mixed feelings about it changing its name to napster due to the obviously negative impression that many (eg. company IT people) have of that name.

Nonetheless, its a great service for the most part:
1. I can download all the music I want for one flat fee of 10 bucks a month. I can only play it on the computer I downloaded it to, but thats the only computer (at home) I listen to music on.
2. I can stream music at work... this means I can go group an artist or genre or group of songs into a playlist and have it streamed to my while I work. I can also listen to their radio stations.
3. Purchasing music - .99 is not that bad considering that you pay 15 bucks for a cd on which you like 4 songs. Plus, you can rip the cd that you burn those songs to to mp3 and use on any device you want. That said, I haven't bought that much music from them.

Downsides:
1. Music selection - lots of good music, but some artists that I like are missing.
2. Pay - its taken me a bit of time to get used to the idea of paying something for music (albeit just 10 bucks a month)

Alot of posts here have said that this is some phoney service thats doomed to fail - a wannabe iTunes. I think that many more features are available than with iTunes and I urge you to give it a shot... even just the free trial if its available when they startup.

Died off?

[SuperKendall]

It did have an initial surge, but has been averaging about 500k songs a week. Any guess how much OTHER music services are selling a week?

I have to think that anything actually making money, and lots of it, for the owner is pretty far from being "dead".

Try the library for free stuff

[yerricde]

I get my free Disney material at the public library. Advantages of the library vs. other methods:

• Guaranteed DVD quality (as opposed to Kazaa's unpredictable quality)
• I don't have to worry about accidentally running across sick pornography or other misnamed files (as opposed to Kazaa)
• I don't fund lobbying for further extensions of both the scope and the duration of copyright (as opposed to Suncoast and, to a lesser extent, Blockbuster)

You may be surprised at the selection offered by your public library. I sure was.

Re:Read the Terms and Conditions before you sign u

[Anonymous Coward]

"You may copy each Download to up to two additional personal computers that you own (i.e. a total of 3 copies). You may not share Downloads with anyone else. Napster automatically renews your rights to all of your Downloads at the beginning of each Subscription Month (as defined below) so long as your subscription remains current. This means that in order to play any Download after the end of a Subscription Month, you must log on to the Service so that Napster can renew your rights for those Tracks. The Client will count the number of times that you play a Download, including while you are offline, for royalty accounting and analysis purposes."

SO LET ME GET THIS FUCKING STRAIGHT....

The rights to the music I bought are RENEWED each month, as long as I have a subscription...?

So if I cancel my subscription, then none of my music will play any more? FUCKING WHAT?!?!?!

ME, that's what!

Re:okay, so what's new?

[skookum]

It's based on closed source proprietary software, and riddled with restrictions. Here are some snippets from the terms of service [napster.com]:

To access the Service, you will need to install or activate Napster's proprietary software application; from time to time, you may also be required to install other software made available through the Service (collectively this software is called the "Client"). You may also need to install certain third-party software. ...

You may not authorize, encourage or allow any Tracks or Materials used or obtained by you to be reproduced, modified, displayed, performed, transferred, distributed or otherwise used by anyone else. ...

You may not attempt (or support others' attempts) to circumvent, reverse engineer, decrypt, or otherwise alter or interfere with any Usage Rules or Tracks. ...

You may burn each Purchased Track to a CD up to five times as part of any particular playlist of songs. ...

You may transfer a Purchased Track an unlimited number of times to portable devices that are compatible with the Service's Usage Rules and security requirements. ...

Any security technology that is provided with a Purchased Track is an inseparable part of it. If you have Purchased Tracks, it is your responsibility not to lose, destroy or damage them. Napster shall have no liability to you in the event of any such loss, destruction, or damage. ...

If you are using the version of the Service that is accessible from Microsoft Corporation's Windows Media Player 9 Series, you will only be able to burn or transfer Purchased Tracks using the Windows Media Player. I ...

You may use the "Sync/Restore" function to obtain another copy of those Purchased Tracks for up to two additional computers that you own. ...

Currently, the Service is only available to residents of the United States. You understand and acknowledge that you may not sign up for, access, or attempt to access or use the Service from countries outside of the U.S.

As you can see, this service is riddled with restrictions and the music that you buy is locked into a proprietary format... There are no guarantees about your ability to retrieve new copies of these tracks in the future, and your ability to back them up may be limited (see the "2 additional computers" clause.) It's unclear whether you'd even be able to use the same tracks that you purchased after reinstalling your Windows OS. Use of the tracks with a portable device looks like it's dependent on that device having sufficient DRM installed, and probably must be supported by WMP.

Finally, it's limited to US citizens that are using MS Windows and/or Mac OS.

I don't think this service will be received very well, and its only similarity to any other form of Napster is its name.