Crave

Correction: The Microsoft Zune HD will not be available outside of the United States. The Zune Video Marketplace for Xbox, however, will be available for select countries beyond the U.S., including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Donald and Jasmine give the newly official Zune HD its deserved time in the spotlight as they both gush about the player's design and HD features as well as speculate about pricing and other possible Wi-Fi-related additions. Also this week, the Insiders discuss rumblings about a potential Sirius XM App for the iPhone. Then, Jasmine brings up some of the tiniest MP3 players to ever be reviewed by CNET, while Donald goes off on a tangent about audiobooks. And we musn't forget to give props to the entity that gave this whole digital music thing a violent shove into the mainstream consciousness: Napster, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary this week.

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And so does Jasmine. Tune in to hear Jasmine (and Donald, to a lesser extent) gush about the upcoming Sony X-Series Walkman, a sweet-looking touch-screen MP3 player that has us hooked with its integrated Slacker capability, tactile playback buttons, and fun and innovative interface. Also, we manage to drag ourselves out of our Walkman infatuation long enough to discuss some upcoming Creative headphones, as well as give some tips on how you can move an iTunes library to an external hard drive. Finally, find out where you can find plenty of free (and legal) MP3s all over the Web. They may not be good songs, but free counts for something, right?

Napster's new deal: 7 million streaming tracks and 5 keeper downloads, all for five bucks a month.

(Credit: Napster)

If you routinely buy at least five songs per month, here's good news from Napster: A new subscription plan nets you five DRM-free MP3 downloads and unlimited streaming for just $5 monthly. In other words, it's like buying the songs you were buying anyway and getting unlimited streaming for free.

If that sounds vaguely familiar, it's because Microsoft recently added 10 "permanent" downloads to its $14.99 per month Zune Pass subscription. Obviously, the Zune plan is costlier, though it does include unlimited "temporary" downloads to your desktop or Zune player, not just streaming.

Best Buy-owned Napster still offers a $14.95 per month To Go plan for folks who want to stuff their portable players or cell phones with music, though it's unclear whether that plan has been upgraded to include the five MP3 downloads.

Anyway, back to the $5 deal. To me it's a no-brainer as I typically buy a handful of tracks from Amazon each month. For the same money I get unrestricted access to Napster's 7 million-plus song library, along with 60 commercial-free radio stations and 1,400-plus prefab playlists.

The truth is, I spend most of my day at a desk, so I'm actually more interested in the streaming than the downloads. As much as I despise all things subscription, this is too good to pass up. Agree? Disagree? I'm all ears.

SIDE DEAL No. 1: While we're on the subject of music services, Rhapsody is offering a free, no-strings attached MP3 download every day of the week. Recent offerings included a track from Green Day's new album, a Bon Jovi classic, and the latest Lady GaGa single. It kind of makes iTunes' obscure-freebie-of-the-week seem downright, well, weak.

SIDE DEAL No. 2: If you're in the market for an MP3 player to go with Napster, Rhapsody, or whatever, Creative has the 8GB Creative Zen (refurbished) for $64.99--far and away the best price I've seen yet on that model.

Napster Mobile expands its service

(Credit: Napster)

Napster and AT&T announced Thursday that Napster Mobile is now available to more than 13 million AT&T customers.

As part of AT&T Mobile Music, Napster Mobile is now available on more than 25 AT&T phones, including the new BlackBerry Bold, the Pantech Matrix, and the Samsung Propel.

According to Napster, the expansion was possible thanks to less restrictive DRM. If your phone is compatible, you can purchase and download songs over the air from Napster Mobile for $1.99 each, which also includes a PC copy. If you choose, you can also get Napster Mobile for a $7.49 monthly subscription, which allows you to download five songs per month.

Buyers of most new Lenovo laptops and desktops will get to relive the good old days of free music via Napster--for a couple of weeks, at least.

The PC maker and the once notoriously embattled digital-music pioneer announced Friday that Lenovo customers will get a free, 14-day trial subscription to Napster To Go. The service lets users listen to songs on their PC and transfer an unlimited number of music tracks to any compatible MP3 player or music-enabled cell phone without paying per track.

The beleaguered online-music company is clearly looking for ways to attract new subscribers. After a high-profile court battle silenced the free peer-to-peer service, its attempts to resurface as a legitimate subscription-based music service haven't put it back on top. The addition of 6 million DRM-free MP3s would've been more impressive, if Amazon MP3 weren't doing the same.

Napster announced to shareholders last month that it's still employing investment bank UBS and may be positioning itself for "strategic alternatives" to keeping the company public--i.e. a sale.

(Credit: Napster)

Probably the biggest piece of digital music news to come out of CES 2008 was that Napster was planning to offer its complete catalog of more than 6 million tracks in the unprotected MP3 format.

On Tuesday, with the launch of version 4.5 of the software and store, that announcement becomes a reality. Although digital music stores such as eMusic, Amazon MP3, and even Napster itself already had MP3s on offer before this point, the collective catalogs of all three didn't even come near the volume of tracks you can find in the entire Napster library. All four major labels and thousands of indies are represented in the store, and every track will be available at the standard 99 cent price point.

Napster's Web-based store with the online media player window open.

(Credit: Napster)

In addition, Napster's Web-based store, which is all that is required for MP3 purchases and downloads, is compatible with every operating system. And--of course--the MP3s can be played on any MP3 player, portable video player, or music cell phone. Currently, 95 percent of the catalog is encoded at 256Kbps, which is reasonably high-quality for an MP3, and each track comes with hi-resolution album art (at least 1,000x1,000 pixels). Although Napster has quite an international presence, the MP3 store will only be available to U.S. residents for the time being.

Napster will continue to offer its online and To Go subscription services for $12.95 or $14.95 per month, respectively. The music associated with a subscription will remain in the protected WMA format with the time-out capability.

The company did make some improvements to its online interface. It now features a "liquid layout," which resizes everything within both the store and media player windows when you adjust the size of either window. Napster has also improved its download management system so that users can better view what has been purchased already and whether it was ever downloaded after the purchase.

Sadly, because of label restrictions, Napster will not be offering any type of trade program for customers who have a library of DRM-protected WMA files that they purchased a la carte. However, the licenses on those files will continue to be supported by the service, so no need to worry about a repeat of the MSN Music scandal. At least not for now.

(Credit: Crave UK)

U.K. phone network O2 announced today that it has partnered exclusively with online music vendor Napster to provide a la carte, over-the-air music downloads to O2 customers, direct to their mobile phones. Napster's entire 5 million-track catalog will be available for download from this weekend and includes listings from every major record label.

While many O2 customers enjoy free handsets, those who spent the 269-pound premium (about $545) to buy the O2-exclusive iPhone will not be able to use this service, however. U.K. Apple devotees will have to wait for over-the-air music downloads.

Songs will be accessed through O2 Active, the network's mobile portal, which cannot be used on the iPhone because the handset doesn't support WAP. The service will be available to both contract and pay as you go customers, and your songs will still play if you cancel your contract.

Individual tracks will cost 99 pence (about $2.01), with data charges for each song included in the cost of the download. For a limited promotional period of three months, O2 will offer five tracks for 4 pounds ($8.10). A Napster spokesperson would not confirm or deny any plans to offer deals on complete album downloads.

After downloading a song to one of 35 compatible handsets, an identical copy is sent to a user's email account that can be played on a PC or moved to a compatible MP3 player and are identical to files downloaded using Napster's traditional a la carte service. All songs will be protected by Microsoft's Windows Media DRM, PlaysForSure, and are encoded at 128-kbps WMA.

For those of you keeping track of movements in the mobile music downloads space, you'll notice the O2/Napster service is very different to Omnifone's MusicStation Max, which is due to launch later this year, offering unlimited access to 1.5 million tracks from all four major labels for a fee built into the cost of the handset. Napster also has deals with Sonos to distribute its entire catalogue to subscribers who own Sonos music systems.

So will you pay 99 pence a pop for access to Napster's entire catalog? Are you a disgruntled iPhowner? Leave a comment below or visit our MP3 forum over yonder.

(Source: Crave UK)

On a day when we learn an iPod apparently threw off sparks in Japan, generating nervous memories of exploding Dell laptops, let's take time to report the obvious: The people who run the recording industry are very often not very bright.

Blender.com has published an entertaining list of the record industry's 20 biggest, dumbest, and stunningly dense moments. Topping that list, not surprisingly, is the industry's jihad against Napster. To refresh your memories: Shawn Fanning's dandy innovation allowed people to share millions of songs over the Internet. But there was a problem: They weren't paying for it, and the record industry sued the pants off Napster and eventually, many would argue, killed it in its original form.

These guys or the Tremeloes? You decide.

(Credit: Apple Corps.)

Two other tech-related fiascos, the ham-handed piracy suit brought against single mom Jammie Thomas (No. 5 on Blender's list) and Sony BMG's copy-protection rootkit scandal (logging in at No. 9), also made the list. It's fair to say Blender believes the industry has had a tin ear when it comes to new technology. These are people, after all, who thought 8-tracks were a great idea.

But before we roundly mock the recording industry, about those iPods: A Reuters report out of Japan said one of Apple's iPod Nanos emitted sparks while being recharged. Now as a frequent carrier of an iPod Nano, this certainly got my attention. Reuters says Apple is looking into what happened, and there's no indication so far that this is any sort of widespread problem. But it's Apple, so people will get worked up about this no matter how isolated it may turn out to be. My colleague Tom Krazit is looking into it, and will let you know if there's more to this on his One More Thing blog. Reuben Lee of CNET Asia has also posted a short take on it on Crave.

Now about those brain-dead moments: That the Napster fracas tops the Blender list says everything about the state of the recording industry. This, according to Blender, was an even bigger gaffe than a Decca Record A&R exec's failure to sign the Beatles in the early 1960s. Instead, he signed a slightly lesser known act, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes.

Who can forget Lars Ulrich, the drummer for the heavy metal band Metallica, waving a list of Napster users outside Napster's Silicon Valley offices? As anyone who has seen the hilarious Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster can attest, Lars and his hard-charging gang are savvy enough businessmen and good musicians if you're into that sort of thing; they're also a collection of petulant, absurdly wealthy, man-children. They are Spinal Tap in real life--bickering, leaning on a corporate psychologist-type, and taking themselves waaaaay too seriously as they struggle to produce another megahit album of terribly loud music.

The movie, unfortunately, only briefly touches on the Napster incident. But it makes it clear that it had a big enough impact on the band that they decided to keep their shrink around a little while longer to help them deal with the fallout.

We shouldn't be shocked that Metallica maybe didn't understand what Napster represented: A profound change in how people consume music. But we should be a little disappointed in the industry execs who should have been smarter and still don't seem to be. As Blender correctly points out, the industry went the legal route, rather than recognizing this was a game-changing technology that they'd need to figure out how to work with. Now there are a gazillion Napsters, all exchanging music people used to pay for.

I won't make apologies for people who engage in wholesale pirating of any sort of content. I also won't make excuses for an industry that refuses to accept that their old business model is broken. All the lawsuits in the world won't change that.

It's easy to get on your high horse when it comes to the record labels, of course. But as I nervously eye my Nano recharging on my desk, sans sparks or other acts of spontaneous combustion, I can say one thing with absolute certainty: when suing the customers is your best answer to changing technology, you have problems.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

Do you buy CDs, LPs, MP3s, iTunes, or 8 track cartridges?

If so, do you buy them from Amazon or other online retailer, brick and mortar chain store, or local "record" shop?

Do you regularly buy used CDs or LPs? And rarely buy new CDs or LPs?

Do you subscribe to a subscription service, if so, which one? Rhapsody, Yahoo, Napster, etc?

If you really like a tune you heard from a subscription service do you buy it? Do you buy individual tracks or complete albums?

Or do you get your tunes from a P2P like Morpheus or Blubster?

What about DRM, do you care?

What percentage of your physical music collection did you get for free (ripped CDs, gifts, etc)?

Is sound quality a factor, would you pay more for higher quality downloads or subscriptions?

Do you buy CDs, burn 'em, and them sell them?

How do you discover new music? Radio, friends, online, record stores?

What have I left out?