Comments on: Napster's latest: Best music-subscription deal ever?

Napster's not quite giving away the store, but this offer comes close: For five bucks a month you get five DRM-free MP3s and unlimited on-demand streaming of 7 million songs.

[Geoff_W]

To each his own it really looks like eh.

From all accounts, the new pricing won't be pushed to mobiles, maybe b/c the download client?

Looks good if you want very specific songs, but the radio stations feel a bit too repeat-heavy to drive as much music discovery as some services like Pandora, but that's just to me.

Seems like Best Buy will be dropping the ball if this doesn't expand to mobiles, especially the ones they sell in-store.

[SDscorch]

i have a question - what is the "quality" of the napster MP3s that you get?? bitrate/filesize/whatever...

(and.. what is the quality music you get from "other" sites?? amazon/itunes/etc)

[Mark_Reeder]

The 5 MP3s you get each month are 256k, DRM-free MP3s.

[SDscorch]

oh geez! there's a catch!!

look at THIS... http://www.betanews.com/article/Napster-What-you-should-know-before-plunking-down-five-dollars/1242771922

some songs in napster are only "thirty second clips" - ??



i don't want to select a song and then only get a 30sec sample
:(

(if youwant to hear the whole thing.. you have to buy the MP3!)
:(

[j_a_s_p_e_r]

I used Napster for years and then Rhapsody for years (recently cancelled Rhapsody when Zune introduced their deal - even though I don't own one). Just about every major artist esp new releases were available as full tracks. In some cases where Apple had an exclusive such as with ColdPlay you have to wait a few weeks. Some artists like Creed held out for a long time and resisted streaming, they are on-board now. Interestingly enough I've found that some albums were available for streaming in Napster and not Rhapsody and vice versa. There are MILLIONS of songs available for streaming the 30s only clips are in the minority.

[ktappe]

Beware--Mac users do not receive the 5 DRM-free tracks per month. I've no idea why--it seems rather backwards. If they were DRM'ed then I could see the cause being Microsoft's system which only works on Windows, but if they're DRM-free then they should work on all OS'es. This is just bizarre and an unnecessary case of Mac marginalization. I'll (continue to) avoid Napster.

[musicmusic1234]

not true!! Mac users DO get their tracks DRM-free too! (you just have to use Firefox, not Safari).

[Mark_Reeder]

@musicmusic1234 - yes, that's true, Napster also works just fine on Safari, even if it's not in the official requirements.

[graysonkoonce]

napster works great in safari.

[xZero2007x]

Frickin Best Buy. When I heard that they were purchasing Napster back when I was employed there, I lol'ed because they weren't able to grow their original music service to that size on their own and had to resort to buying a third-rate distributor.
They'll be in the game with that move, but in terms of success and innovation, they're not going to offer any with thinking like that.

As for the deal, go back to buying CDs you cheapskates. Or stick with the other services/alternatives (there are a ton of streaming services that stream to your workstations/mobile devices for free as long as you have the data connection *hinthintwhatyoushouldspendyourmoneyonmaybe??*)--I want to see the least innovative of the bunch (Best Buy + Napster) barely get by with the left over crumbs.

[Steverino]

OP rexdeaz will only understand why people pay for music when he gets out of school, grows up, gets a job, and expects to receive a paycheck.

[phpdood]

I signed up for this deal; its awesome. In just one week I have already gotten my $5 worth out of the 60+ hours spent at my desktop working.


Not to mention I can stream music while I'm at starbucks on my netbook for the same cost as a venti latte!

[graysonkoonce]

I'm using Napster on Fedora, Ubuntu, & OSX. can't use the desktop client, but I wouldnt even if i could. the future of portable apps lies in the web browser.

[BlazeEagle]

But, How long will this deal last? This could be $5 to lure in the masses, then jack up the price a few months later.

Obviously though, They'ed lose customers if they did that.

[rlamador]

You shouldn't have to pay to stream music, as it's a datastream and not a file copy. If you want playlists, use YouTube or automate it with http://justhearit.com