Napster

[DJBenson]

I've just signed up for the 7 day trial to Napster.

Under this trial - when I "download" a track it doesn't cost me does it?

What is the difference between "Downloading" files and "Buying" them?

[larrymarr]

the difference is when you download music you can only listen to it on your PC where as if you buy the tracks you can put them onto CD or a portable mp3 player

[SteveC]

Can't you play the downloaded file, then simply record it?

[JayX]

with something like totalrecorder yeah.. but its a lossy source, so it'd be better to buy it. or just not bother using it, which is what i plan to do.

[DJBenson]

Whoever said it was not worth the money must have very different tastes to my own. I've downloaded about 50 tracks in the last hour - mostly retro dance stuff, but there's loads I like.

Got the new Razorlight album too!

As it stands (file format/quality aside) Napster is beating iTunes for me.

[kohoutec]

Main downer with Napster et all - If you're are only downloading tracks to your HDD theyve got you over a barrel really, once you cancel your subs the tracks wont play anymore :(

[DJBenson]

Oh and I was under the impression that Winamp could't play DRM encoded files - seem to be playing fine for me, just a shame that Nullsoft disabled the wave writer plugin ;)

[George vader]

I've signed up for the 7 day free trial and I'm pretty impressed.
99p a track though is a 'bit' too high though with the £10 a month sub, might just give it a go for a month just listening to new stuff, currently listening to the new Charlatans release, kind of try before you buy.

The back cataloge is pretty impressive too folks.

[ljp]

I dont want to get flamed but why would you pay for a service like Napster when you can download for nothing using other peer to peer programs.
I'm not condoning piracy but 99p seems very high to me - if the music industry is losing money why dont they just lower the price of real music (IE cd's)
The only benefit of sites like Itunes I can see is that you can guarantee a high bitrate but it seems that most new albums on peer to peer seem to get the high bitrate treatment anyway.
Or am I missing something?

[Refrenz]

I dont want to get flamed but why would you pay for a service like Napster when you can download for nothing using other peer to peer programs.
I'm not condoning piracy but 99p seems very high to me - if the music industry is losing money why dont they just lower the price of real music (IE cd's)
The only benefit of sites like Itunes I can see is that you can guarantee a high bitrate but it seems that most new albums on peer to peer seem to get the high bitrate treatment anyway.
Or am I missing something?

Nope, you've got it in a nutshell. Legitimate online music download services offer the following disadvantages ...

[1] Below CD-quality music.
[2] Music files with intrusive playback and/or copy restrictions.
[3] Overpriced, especially considering the above limitations when compared to the price of a CD.
[4] Limited catalogues compared to what is available on CD.
[5] When no longer required, music files are only good for the recycle bin. CDs can be re-sold.
[6] If your hard disk fails, kiss goodbye to your downloaded record collection.

and the following advantages ...

[1] Preview a track or album before buying.
[2] You can cherry pick your favourite album tracks and discard the dross.
[3] Immediate content delivery.