

Napster Clawing Back 265
D Anderson n'Swaart writes: "As the BBC reports in this article, Napster is set to return shortly, as a subscription-based sharing service, a concept facing a less-than-rosy future. The report gives a brief history of Napster, and the current state of the various lawsuits that were brought against it. The briefs: Napster is going to have to fork over a total of around $36M USD, $10M of which is downpayment on future royalties." And whatAnotherAolUser writes that the company "agreed to pay $26 million to settle a copyright lawsuit with songwriters and music publishers, and to make royalty payments to the writers and publishers once it started a fee-based service." Guess it depends where you start counting.
so... (Score:1)
and it is easy enough to write your own if all the free ones disappear?
Re:so... (Score:2, Insightful)
You can write your own file sharing app, but if no one else uses it then you're sharing with yourself.
Napster must be hoping that the brand name will lead to enough people using the service that they will find what they want.
Re:so... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:so... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:so... (Score:2)
Not that any of this will stop file sharing. I can fit several CDs worth of music on a CD-R as Ogg Vorbis or mp3. In the process of ripping my CDs I get a track listing. I can easily create a catalog for friends to pick and choose from, and we trade CD-Rs via mail or in person.
Re:so... (Score:1)
seriously though, there are any number of clients now to any number of services, all free, that I can get just about anything I want from it. granted, anything I want is pretty minor. I don't look for entire programs and such. but one can find plenty of porn, and plenty of music.
with LimeWire, the only thing two problems I ever had (other than the older client crashing all the time) were 1) I wanted a song that was obscure ('speeding motorcycle' sung by what sounded to be a drunken retarded person into a radio statio via a long distance phone call from a pay phone - hard to find, but a great song - still can't get it, I know they played it on the radio station [williams.edu] back in college), and 2)... I'm not sure I recall what 2 was... oh yeah (stream of consciousness post) it is annoying when they are behind firewalls and you can't get to the stuff - but those are easy enough to see which are which, they usually have IP addresses similar to my own machines which sit behind a linksys router.
yeah. so there.
Re:so... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:so... (Score:1)
right. care to elaborate? I use limewire and think it is fine - much better IMO than any version of Napster I ever had, and I'm not going to be paying to use napster, and I don't know anyone that is.
Re:so... (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, look at what dismal failures DSS satellite and cable TV are! Who would pay for TV?
Oh...wait...
Seriously, tho, where I live (Denver) the local radio [denverradiosucks.com] (all run by Rear Channel, of course) is so piss-poor I'm considering sat radio.
I'm sick of inane DJs and identical playlists of mainstream butt-rock that Rear Channel stations continuously spew.
The only decent channel I have heard is KVCU out of Boulder, but they're low power and half the time I can't get reception.
I heard somewhere tho that XM has commercials, which, IMO, sucks if I'm paying for it.
Sirius (a competing sat radio company) says theirs is commercial-free, so I'll prolly look into that.
C-X C-S
Heh (Score:2)
Since when have slashdorks been a valid predictor of anything?
I mean, if the Slashdork Prognosticator(tm) was accurate,
Bill G would be living in a box, linux would be
on the desktop, and all software would be free.
C-X C-S
Never (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Never (Score:2, Funny)
who? (Score:2, Insightful)
NAPSTER GOOD!! (Score:1)
Too bad for Jason, no champagne for him.
And an added note... (Score:5, Informative)
this just in... AMC is going to start... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:this just in... AMC is going to start... (Score:1, Insightful)
the Pacer is Dead, Napster is Dead, both have tarnished images now, both have been replaced by better items...
NOT offtopic...
How is it going to be profitable? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How is it going to be profitable? (Score:4, Insightful)
They're screwed.
Re:How is it going to be profitable? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How is it going to be profitable? (Score:4, Funny)
Possibly RIAA-added ratings of some kind. RIAA commentary, something that would create a fake community around the music. Or some kind of mechanism for recommending the music that the RIAA would like you to buy and upload. For example, I like this particular profitable music. If Napster could come up with a way of FORCING music on me based on one particular database or set of demographics, or perhaps based on surveillance of me and other people, that would be a profitable service. Then napster wouldn't be a file-sharing system... it would be a music-marketing system... and with millions of user-provided files out there, a marketing system worth its weight in gold. Its value would increase with every additional prisioner of the system too.
Re:How is it going to be profitable? (Score:2)
My last few searches turned up nada....
Re:How is it going to be profitable? (Score:2)
some kind of value-added service
They could offer a 'Resume from other people' feature. Just have a 'start downloading at time x' function, convert the MP3s to waveforms, join the two files, and recompress. There are some nice algorithms out there to reduce lossage due to recompressing... I for one would really like such a feature.
Thinks like this wouldn't be easy, but they would be good.
Michael
Re:How is it going to be profitable? (Score:3, Interesting)
Specifically, who will pay money to be granted the priveledge of serving up content? If I serve up more than I pull down over gnutella (which I do), why am I going to pay Napster to be allowed to do that for them?
Napster need me a lot more than I need them. I wonder if they realise that yet?
But what if... (Score:1)
Does anyone care about Napster anymore? (Score:1, Insightful)
Not file sharing then... (Score:5, Funny)
Nope, they're still going to let USERS, paying for the system provide the actual files - so the users will be providing the service. Napster will just be getting lots of money (at least that's what they want) for being a middle man.
Can anyone say 'pimp'?
Re:Not file sharing then... (Score:2, Insightful)
The big problem, as we all know, is that Napster is centralized. Centralized means there's just one weak point to smash (with lawyers) and everything comes down fast and hard.
Re:Not file sharing then... (Score:2, Funny)
now THAT'S sarcasm...
Re:Not file sharing then... (Score:2, Insightful)
Say you charge 5-10$ each user to ise the service and download stuff. Now how about if you create a rewards program. Here is the explanation.
- If you share many songs and if people download your songs, you get a discount from your monthly fee depending on the bandwidth you contributed. Rewards can depend on the number of songs, quality, diversity, etc. If you are a good community member, you end up using the service for free. This should attract students at dormitories since they don't pay for bandwidth anyway.
It has to happen... (Score:1)
Why is Napster even attempting this? It's a complete waste fo time and money. It's going to be a dismal failure. I hope the RIAA takes note of this and starts looking for REAL solutions to the "problem."
$26 million settlment!? (Score:1)
Re:$26 million settlment!? (Score:2)
If salt costed $20 a pound, mostly everyone would still be able to buy it.
If they were overpriced someone would come along and offer a CD at a lesser price wouldn't they?
All salt manufacturers gang up and fix the price; they also buy govt officials to enforce the trust by beating the tar out of anyone else who dares to evaporate sea water.
IINM, something of the sort happened in India under the British rule.
Give em some credit (Score:4, Interesting)
A year ago I would have said nobody will pay for that service. But now I think enough time has elapsed and enough other free services have gone under, that they maybe be able to get a user base going again.
I'm frustrated enough right now with the dot-coms and the ever slowing gnutella network, that I may just pry my wallet open to get something I want, when I want it, without having to pay for stuff I don't want.
I would agree... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I would agree... (Score:3, Insightful)
Spartan and well put, but subject to misinterpretation.
Are they still planning to rent out their Luser's hard drives? That would be as lame as can be, pay someone to use your equipment without even letting people post what they want. Sorry, no sale. I can't imagine the once flourishing community of enthusiastic volunteers bending to this kind of deal. They will get around this.
All good cons depend on the greed of their victims. Volunteers don't care one way or another. You can tell the difference by the strings attatched.
Re:Give em some credit (Score:2)
Very possibly, but I can see one major flaw with that argument. Napster will be reliant on people with fast broadband connections paying it money for the priveledge of serving content.
Now, if I'm primarily serving content (which I am), am I going to do it over a free network like gnutella (which I do), or am I going to pay Napster to be allowed to do it for them, when I know (or suspect) that most of the uploads will be to leechers?
For me, it's a no brainer.
Re:Give em some credit (Score:2)
Gnutella is pretty bad right now regardless of which client you use. If I'm on a 56k connection and I'm trying to download an MP3, I usually get somewhere in the range of "busy" to "2.1kbps". The fact that your also getting bombarded with everybody elses search requests doesn't help the connection out. Seriously, Gnutella requires that EVERYONE have broadband, on Napster it's just a convenience.
Re:Give em some credit (Score:2)
Go back and read what I wrote. Napster is reliant on having plenty of fast, always on broadband connections uploading content. Who did you think was serving those tracks to you? Other modem users?
I'm hoping that they realise that and have some financial distinction between uploaders and downloaders. This isn't a flame or a criticism, I used Napster back when I had a diallup, and completely understand that the only practical way to use it is to turn off sharing.
Re:Give em some credit (Score:2)
I guess I'm somewhat assuming that when Napster goes commercial, they'll be hosting the songs on their server.
Re:Give em some credit (Score:2)
Frankly, I don't see how else they can do it. Also, I assume they'll need a free-for-all month to get everyone back on, but I can't see how even that will be workable if people just jump on to leech like frenzied weasels for a month.
Re:Give em some credit (Score:2)
Alas, Poor Napster... (Score:3, Insightful)
...Rather it is now the aging fossil trying desperately to re-capture that one shining moment in the sun that it once enjoyed. And it is finding that the adoring fans that once chanted its name have since moved on and have not looked back since. But still, it must try, for it has to know.
Re:Alas, Poor Napster... (Score:2)
Oh my god... "Hey kids, we're on your side, party on, we're down and, er, jiggly wiv dat, but you still have to pay us money" ... it's true... you always become the thing you hate... they've become... Metallica!
Quit beating the horse (Score:3, Insightful)
Napster had already become little more than a joke without it being a pay service, now to add a monthly fee onto that is more insult than anything.
If it were still in its original form, sure... it'd be a great success, and tons of people would subscribe. But with it's currently mangled useability? I can't see it happening.
Dammit Sean, just write something else.
Morpheus... (Score:3, Insightful)
When I was looking for the LOTR trailer this morning, I found it on Morpheus.
If it works *nearly* that good for Audio files (And yes, you can share OGG's with it), then it has Napster beat hands down. It even appears to be free of the spyware that infests the other Kazzaa clients.
Re:Morpheus... (Score:5, Informative)
I'm reposting it since reynaert gave a bad link to it
I haven't tried out giFT yet, but I use Kazaa occasionally, and the number of files and users on the network is astounding (~half million!) You can also regularly find movies on FastTrack that are still in theaters, but don't tell anyone you heard it from me
giFT (Score:2)
The CGI doesn't do downloads from multiple sites, but I may modify it.
I did a quick hack to change the look and to filter out VBS, EXE, EML and other obvious virus files. It works great and has the added benefit of being very open.
Since Fast Track uses HTTP for transport, you can also use other tools. The other day, I found a user who had 88 great songs and the connection was excellent for my 64K isdn. I just opened a terminal and did a 'wget -R' on his address and port number. 15 hours later, I had all 88 songs.
I'll make my mods to the CGI available if anyone's interested. (Maybe even the logo I drew...)
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
Re:Morpheus... (Score:2, Informative)
The nicest thing is no spyware, not even registration. It is as good as napster ever was for music, plus films, software, etc.
My $0.02 (Score:5, Insightful)
1: Hire studio rats to program the synth-pop music she sings over.
2: Hire a producer and recording engineer team able to make a child singer sound "sexy"
3: Produce expensive videos that wave Ms. Spears's two most obvious selling points in front of the camera.
4: Get it played on the radio (in this case, her records come from Disney, who is a top-5 player in almost every radio market)
To suggest that Ms. Spears is somehow entitled to 100% (or even more than a small percentage) of the revenue generated by her "art" is to ignore who is doing all the work.
The answer is obvious: Ignore major label music entirely. Turn off the radio, stop watching MTV, and allow yourself to lose touch with popular culture. (People are supposed to do that when they start growing up, anyway.)
The truth is, it has already started happening. Concert attendance has been plumetting over the last 10 years, because nobody seriously thinks any band really matters anymore. The biggest draws are leftover bands from the era when people actually cared (like U2). It seems to me that most people no longer consider their favorite music to be an integral part of their identity the way they did in the past. While the latest release from Weezer might be mildly entertaining, nobody is going to worship them the way throngs of stoners once went apeshit over Led Zeppelin; nobody is going to follow them from city to city the way caravans followed the Grateful Dead. Rock n Roll has become a dead religion.
This year, I heard that a band called "Destiny's Child" won a bunch of awards. From the TV blub, they look kind of cute, and seem to be a band that sings shopworn 3-part harmonies over shopworn hip-hop beats. At the time, it occurred to me that I have not heard more than a 20-second blip from any of their songs. So tell me, fellow Slashbots, am I really missing anything by ignoring these teen divas and listening to Bethoven's 7th Symphony during my drive home?
Re:My $0.02 (Score:4, Funny)
No, you're not missing anything, but poor Beethoven hasn't seen one dime since Napster wrecked the late 18th-century music market. For how many more centuries will we allow his music to be just given away?
Re:My $0.02 (Score:2, Interesting)
Pay the musician directly!
This hurts the no-talents (Spears, etc.) that are basically ENGINEERED by media execs, and require a massive team of techies to put up the illusion of musical talent.
Real musicians that play in front of real people who appreciate their real talent should have no problem with mp3's. People still pay to experience live music.
I wish MY favorite bands would adopt the "play in real life" spirit that these other guys have. Unfortunately, I just don't dig on the Greatful Dead's or Phish's particular musical style, and they seem like the only ones that do consistant touring.
Re:My $0.02 (Score:2, Informative)
Phish isnt on tour anymore,
And the Greatful Dead kinda stopped touring since the big Garcia died in the early 90s, but they have toured since with different frontmen but its not the same
BUT! There are a HELL of a lot of really really really talented musicians of all genres that constantly tour. Especially within the indie labels.
Re:My $0.02 (Score:2)
Thanks for your consideration. : )
Re:My $0.02 (Score:3, Insightful)
Hang on, have you seen a live closeup of Ms Spears recently? She's badly sun damaged and already sagging, and is trembling right on the brink of reverting to pure trailer trash. I'd say that cleaning her up and making her look even halfway perky in a video is a feat of engineering.
Re:My $0.02 (Score:3, Funny)
And how is this a problem, exactly?
Re:My $0.02 (Score:3, Interesting)
Or, the record label would evaluate her, as they do now, and sign her to a contract, as they do now. They would mix up her music and promote it and all that, and the fans would pay her directly, and then, as stipulated in her contract, she would give the labels their cut.
What's the problem?
Re:My $0.02 (Score:2, Insightful)
You are missing a great deal. That's ok, though, since 19th Century music is pretty good. So is painting, and you need not venture out into the world of Kokoschka and Chagall if you don't want to.
I once asked a musician friend of mine whether he kept up with the newer stuff (he was in his early thirties at the time, circa 1995). He said yes, that it required more work as he got older, but that he still found enough gems to make it worthwhile. He said that recently -- remember this was 5 yrs ago - he "discovered" Radiohead's The Bends, Talk-Talk's laughingstock, and Girls Against Boy's Venus Luxor No. 9, Baby. At the time, I was too broke to take a chance on unknown CD's, but if Napster would have been around, I could have enjoyed these bands for an even longer time.
Perhaps you should be glad for Napster and it's successors. They make the task of discovering new music easier for those of us who are now getting older. I know that it, as well as gnutella, has certainly added great pleasure to my life.
This is what the record companies didn't count on. As we gaze at Napster's latest thrashing about, let's remember that it wasn't "selfishness" or "criminal hacking" which gave us file sharing. It was sheer love of music.
Re:My $0.02, not worth much. (Score:2)
2: Hire a producer and recording engineer team able to make a child singer sound "sexy"
3: Produce expensive videos that wave Ms. Spears's two most obvious selling points in front of the camera.
4: Get it played on the radio (in this case, her records come from Disney, who is a top-5 player in almost every radio market)
1 and 2 get union wages today, and will get union wages tomorow no matter who pays them for their services.
3 and 4 are leaches and only make a living due to the disgusting control of music production, distribution, and broadcast the RIAA has. Barf. I got sick of buying my culture from those losers, so I stoped doing it.
Re:My $0.02 (Score:2)
I know you have'nt tried (and neither have I, nor 90% of people who visit this site), but if you had tried to get concert tickets to any show Backstreet Boys, NSync, Britney, etc. played in the past 2 years, you would realize how sadly untrue this statement,and most fof your arguement, is. People (read: teenagers) flock to pop culture like moths to a flame. And guess what... Teenagers and young 20-somethings drive concert sales, not 30-40 year olds reminicing about "times gone by".
Re:My $0.02 (Score:2)
- Concert attendance has been plumetting over the last 10 years...
if you had tried to get concert tickets to any show Backstreet Boys, NSync, Britney, etc. played in the past 2 years, you would realize how sadly untrue this statement isOK, ten seconds of seaching found this article [media-awareness.ca] that reckons that concert spending dropped in Canada between 1986 and 1996. Let me take a wild guess that we're going to fewer but bigger concerts rather than more but smaller ones.
Perhaps you could spend ten seconds coming up with more recent figures to back up your counter argument?
Re:My $0.02 (Score:2)
What you just said supports my arguement fully. What are you talking about? I never said anything about going to MORE conerts, I'm trying to point out that the concert scene isn't dying, as you seem to think, its changing... More jumbo-blockbuster-teeny-pop concerts, that make tons of money.
Re:My $0.02 (Score:2)
Well, if ancient classical is all you listen to, then yes, you're missing something. Pop+Classical != all music. Go get Blind Guardian's "Nightfall in Middle Earth" or Nevermore's "Dreaming Neon Black" or Death's "Sound of Perseverance" and you'll be scraping that jaw off the floor. Some of the most talented musicians who ever lived, have recorded stuff in just the last few years.
Re:My $0.02 (Score:2)
They are cute, and they stay that way by booting out their oldest member and recruiting a younger facsimile every few months. This is a good example of where even FairTunes might have a problem - who does the money go to in a band that changes its lineup more often than it's G-strings?
Send this droog to the staja (Score:2)
As everybody who has viddied "A Clockwork Orange" knows, Ludwig Van brings you to serious acts of ultraviolence.
Here's the conundrum... (Score:5, Insightful)
Problem is, others don't seem like they will. Napster, as well as any P2P software is completely dependant on the people who USE and SHARE the stuff. So, I'd be hesitant to sign up until I knew there were plenty of people who were already subscribed (and dial-up'ers don't count). I'm sure others are thinking the same thing, they don't want to pay for a service that only 200 people would use, but they're not willing to sign up until there are more people. So Napster doesn't get people to sign up because...people havn't signed up. Kinda makes it hard for them to get back on their feet, but that's the reality of it.
So...if enough people get the ball rolling, then this could be good for them. If not...then who knows.
Now, here's my question. If you are PAYING Napster to use their software, and they are PAYING the RIAA royalties, does this finally make it "legal" in their eyes? Can a college/isp/company/etc fire/kick off/expell someone for downloading MP3's anymore if they're doing it through this system? Are ISP's still going to monitor my usage to see if I've downloaded any MP3's (I just hate that people label an audio codec automatically as something illegal, instead of its possibly content), and send me one of those warnings?
Re:Here's the conundrum... (Score:3, Informative)
Yes
Re:Here's the conundrum... (Score:2)
Not if they use some crappy-ass proprietary copy=protected .NAP format. Forget it! MP3 is the standard, and if they can't use it, they should do the honorable thing, sell their t-shirts and go home.
Re:Here's the conundrum... (Score:3)
Do what I've been doing for a while: pay for Usenet. Sign up with Giganews or Supernews, etc.
Go to alt.binaries.sound.mp3.requests.
Ask for some stuff.
Or what I do: just scroll through every other day and take a chance. I've found some great stuff I'd never considered buying before, and a lot of great stuff I'd never even heard of. And you don't even HAVE to share.
Granted, most folks liked Crapster because you could just do a search for "Metalica" (sic) and get anything you wanted, but I much prefer the random download take a chance ethos of Usenet.
But that's just me.
Re:Here's the conundrum... (Score:2)
Yup. Surely they'll open with a free-for-all month to get the numbers back.
Sadly, I agree. I'm sure that there are plenty of dialup users who serve files (thank, guys), but I'm also sure that the majority only leech. (hint: if this doesn't apply to you, then I'm not talking about you, and you needn't flame me)
It really does beg the question that if I'm serving files over my cable modem, and Napster are charging people to find those files, why aren't I getting a cut? Yes, my payback is to get files from other servers, but shouldn't I at least get a discounted service?
If my choice is freely sharing files over gnutella, or paying to be allowed to share files over Napster, I know which one I'll be doing.
Re:Here's the conundrum... (Score:2)
I imagine that your employment contract may have some nitpicky clause about expecting you to work rather that download music during working hours with company-provided resources, regardless of whether it's illegal or not. (he says, posting to
[even more OT: WTF is up with Slashdot's posting code lately? Several times in the last few days I've had the stupid thing dump my post compalaining about 'formkeys', and then upon going back to re-submit, it's throw away the text... bleh]
Who cares? (Score:4, Insightful)
Therefore, nobody cares. In order to get on the new napster, you'll have to download a totally new client; it's about as much trouble to do that as it is to download Morpheus.
If someone comes out with a service that contains the entire RIAA catalog, and i can pay an hourly fee and get whatever music i want at a high quality (not random lofi Xing rips like you got on the old napster), i'll be interested. Napster probably isn't providing that. Napster is definitely not providing what they used to provide. Napster has no place in our hearts and we feel no sense of obligation to them, as from day one they have acted as nothing but shifty opportunists, and the service and file sharing app they intially provided was something that could be written by almost anybody with a modicrum of understanding of the MFCs and TCP sockets.
So napster's not dead yet. Neither is 3D0. OK. So what?
The only clawing Napster is doing is at it's grave (Score:1)
However, now that the recording companies are able to make a profit out of napster, perhaps they'll pursue morpheus, audiogalaxy and all these other companies to make sure that napster is unrivaled.
send a flaming message to RIAA (Score:2, Funny)
Not necessary doomed (Score:5, Interesting)
When there's an agreement, it will be with a big artictle in every computer-related publication. It will most likely even be on the TV news. All saying "Napster/music downloading is now legal".
Napster will start a mass marketing campain. Paying computer magazines and ISPs to include their software on their CDs. They probably won't have problems with including it anyway, as it'd be legal. Combine that with paid-for nice reviews, and banners and the usual stuff, and you'd be suprised how quick the comeback of Napster can be. Even as a paid service.
Re:Not necessary doomed (Score:2, Insightful)
PULL!
my $.02 (Score:2, Interesting)
These are the practical things that would catch the attention of Joe Consumer.
No more Napster for me (Score:2)
Now I use Morpheus [musiccity.com]. Works great and I can get pr0n with it too!
Are my Mp3's now licensed? (Score:3, Funny)
Under the NMPA settlement proposal, Napster would pay $26m for all previous unauthorised music that has been swapped using its software, as well as a further $10m in down payment on future royalties.
Does this mean that Napster has just agreed to pay the royalties on all the songs I've downloaded? Gee, thanks! What a swell bunch of guys!
Re:Are my Mp3's now licensed? (Score:2, Funny)
Napster (Jesus) hath paid (forgiven) us for all of our downloads (sins).
Shall we now crucify it?
Smith & Wesson and Legality's Future (Score:2, Insightful)
So if we can sue Napster for make a vehicle withwhich one can break the law, can we sue Smith & Wesson for several thousand homicides in America?
This bothers me.
36 Million For that crap????? (Score:2, Insightful)
That Napster should now have to pay 36 Million for what I already paid for in most cases and cannot even use with a reasonable level of sound quality in all cases, should be a CRIME!
Napster helps sell millions worth of CDs and pays the Music industry for that service!
What a rip off.. I am almost sorry I ever used the service now.
Dot Nap (Score:2, Interesting)
As an aside, a service that I would be willing to pay for is My.MP3.com. I loved that service when it was fully operations with ALL my cd's. Since a lot of my CD's have been removed and that it randomly asked to put the cd's in again I find it useless.
I own over 200 CD's and I bought quite a few from listening to music I found off bearshare (and previously Napster). Why don't they get it?
Re:Dot Nap (Score:2)
> cp sandman.mp3 sandman.nap
> Napster2&
If I'm going to pay for it... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am not going to pay for a service that still depends on the user's providing questionable files over 56k modems or even cable modems/ADSL.
So, what Napster would have to do is have a master
Now that's a service that I would pay for.
Napster was doomed from the start (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Napster was doomed from the start (Score:2)
Then we knew shit. Name me ten artists that retain copyright on their music rather than selling it to their label.
Nothing is stopping us, other than we've gotten used to doing it the easy way.
Tool vs. the network (Score:3, Interesting)
Where is all this money coming from? (Score:2)
The Non-Napster Slashdot... (Score:3, Informative)
Now that it's rising from the grave, can we make a special "Napster" category so I never have to hear another goddamn thing about this particular silly company again? I'd love to hear stuff about filesharing and music licenses, but Napster's death and resurrection do not interest me.
Re:The Non-Napster Slashdot... (Score:2)
Jon who? Wait, wait, I remember him... argh, the memories! Let me out of the cellar, daddy, I'll be good! Don't make me read another Katz rant!
But How Soon We Forget (Score:3, Interesting)
The only selling point.... The music we would download from napster would be completely legit downloads. No worries about wrong doing right?
Now for the nagative side of things...
First off, to keep everyone from distributing these nifty little music files it will most likely come in a protected propietary format. To play you must and most definately will pay. Napster will play it and maybe media player. Remember way back when... there was an article about napster licensing/writing some protected media format. Perhaps someone else can dig up the article.
Assumming they go for a protected media format(now dubbed pmf) there will most likely be a windows only client. I really hate OS lockins. Especially since I stream my mp3's to my workstations. (icecast/mp3) This pmf will probably not work with your existing mp3 player periphreals. (No more music for the car)
Just as everyone has pointed out. We are again likely to see a peer to peer network sharing. You have to pay to share your music.
Maybe I'm wrong, but these assumptions are based from logical guesses (human nature/greed).
Re:But How Soon We Forget (Score:2)
> mv sandman.mp3 sandman.pmf
> Napster2&
They're going to verify the format of all content shared over the network?
Re:But How Soon We Forget (Score:2)
There are different ways of doing it. Like actually requiring the user rip it from cd first. Possibly, re-encode existing mp3's as they are sent out. So, joe blow sends out blah.mp3, but the person on the other end of the share gets blah.pmf. So now it cannot be listened to except in the napster client and cannot be distributed unless it was within the napster client. (embedded tags could say its ok for joe blow to play this, but none other)
Give it your best guess, anything you come up with is probably possible and high crackable.
Who's gonna pay to share? (Score:3, Interesting)
1) The user base has already migrated to better networks (i.e. Kazaa, Morpheus, etc). The content available through these networks is free (as in beer) so it really makes no sense why everyone would "jump" back on Napster to pay for this very same content.
2) The whole idea of community and sharing is what made Napster popular. You were (by default in the software) sharing your music files with others in exchange for getting music files from them. The users provide the bandwidth, the storage, and the content. What exactly Napster would be providing in this "new business model", besides a simple directory service, is beyond me. Is Napster going to host MP3's on fast, high-availability servers and actually shell out some cash for bandwidth and storage space? Or is this another "let's charge for stuff that other people are giving away for free" business model?
I really don't see why anyone would pay to share their music files especially when there are better alternatives and really Napster isn't providing anything in exchange for that $10 (or whatever it may be) monthly fee. Plus, in the mind of most of my peers (college students), Napster has "sold-out" to the music industry and is probably the LAST place anyone would go to get music on the 'net.
I know they certainly won't be getting a dime from me.
Re: (Score:2)
How are they going to reach critical mass again? (Score:2)
I doubt whether their pay service will get anywhere near the critical mass. That obscure live recording of that weird ass band will be available on Kazza or winmx, but not on Napster.
Also, what if I want to download other file types while I am downloading MP3s? Won't be using Napster.
Napster died a long time ago. When code gets a CEO you know it is doomed.
Napster should self-destruct (Score:2)
Screw Napster, here's how to use Win MX (Score:4, Informative)
WinMX is an excellent replacement for Napster.
You need to use it with an updated server list. The default list is pretty
useless.
Instructions
http://www.trippynet.f2s.com/nservers25.dat [f2s.com].
You'll have to rename it to nservers.dat
Choose the final option, "ignore". It may prompt you for a default login
and password. You can enter anything for these values.
section and start searching.
Notes
WinMX searches on several networks at once, so results tend to trickle in
rather than hitting you all at once like with Napster. This can get annoying
since it sorts new results on the fly which means that previous results will
jump around in the list. You may wish to let it go for a few seconds, or
until you get the results you want, and then hit the "stop" button to
prevent new results from coming in.
Also, set your defaults for screening files. I go with "cable or better" for
connection and a bitrate of 128 k (only). Some audiophiles find this
insufficient and go for a higher bitrate, but to most ears, the only
difference is the larger file size and download time of mp3's with high
bitrates.
WinMX will find everything you search on, much like Napster, but the
connections aren't quite as reliable. If you get "connection refused" or
most other errors in red text, forget it and move in. If it says "busy, but
may join queue", you can join the remote queue by right-clicking on it.
WinMX will update your status periodically to tell you your position in the
queue.
It also works for other file types, like pictures and videos. You can :)
probably guess which types of multimedia are most commonly traded
Re:It's not dead, it's resting. (Score:3, Funny)