$14.95 per month for Napster To Go which gives you
Unlimited access to the whole music library
Access the music library from anywhere
Access to the MP3 Download Store
Download DRM encoded tracks to your portable player
$12.95 per month for Napster Standard which gives you
Unlimited access to the whole music library
Access the music library from anywhere
Access to the MP3 Download Store
Napster's Free membership gives you
Free streaming of unlimited tracks but limited to three plays each
Access to the MP3 Download Store
MP3 Download Store Costs
$0.99 cents per track
$9.99 per album
Main Features of Napster:
7 day FREE trial!
Get a free portable player when you sign up to Napster to Go for a year!
Stream any tune up to three times for free!
Over 6 million DRM free songs
MP3 format tracks at 256 kbps
Access the music library from any computer
Download songs to your mobile and get the charges added to your telephone bill
Military discount of 10% on tracks and 30% on subscriptions
Free downloadable software
Create and share playlists
Get 30 second previews before buying a song
Up to date artist and music information
Copy tunes to a wide variety of portable players
Automix feature generates playlists based on what's in your library
Listen to hand picked radio stations
Stream the music library through your web browser
Buy tracks through your web browser
Get discounts with gift vouchers or offer codes
Editor's Verdict:
Back in 1999 the music industry changed forever. An illegal downloading program made it easy for anyone to download music over the internet for free and share it with anyone they wanted. Fast forward almost 10 years and this program, Napster, has turned into a fully featured legitimate music download service. Not just any old service either, Napster has a high position in our list for good reason.
The music library Napster offers is, it claims, the biggest legal collection of tracks on the internet. We don't doubt it, as even the most obscure artists we threw at the search page returned results. With this much music to sift through and organize you're going to want some really good software to do it with.
Well Napster delivers that too.almost. The software is really easy to use and does all the things you would want, such as organizing your music collection, searching it, downloading new tracks etc. However, we found it to be a bit invasive when installing. It insists on starting up when Windows starts, doesn't make it easy to change this setting and, although it's nice to use, it doesn't quite have the same elegance and style as some players. Also Mac users are out of luck as it will only run on Windows. However, anyone, even Mac users, can access the subscription service through a web browser. This is really handy because it lets you access the music library wherever you happen to be.
The best thing about Napster, we think, is the free service it offers. As far as we know it's the only one like it. By signing up to the free service you get to stream almost any of the tracks Napster offers up to three times each completely free. With a library of 6 million tracks this means you could listen to 18 million streams if you really wanted. Unfortunately not all of the tracks are available on this service due to licensing agreements, but the majority are which definitely makes it worthwhile. After you have listened to a track three times you can't listen to it again unless you either purchase it or become a Napster subscriber. We should point out that this service is only available in the U.S at the moment, but we couldn't recommend it more if you can get it!
Regarding Digital Rights Management (DRM), the tracks you listen to through Napster's subscription service are all WMA files encoded at 128 kbps and protected by a DRM mechanism. This means that you don't own the tracks, but rather are renting them from Napster whenever you listen to them. It also means that even with the Napster To Go service they will only work with certain compatible portable players - not the iPod for example. For a full list of compatible players check the Napster web site.
Tracks or albums that you purchase individually from Napster come as MP3 files encoded at high quality 256 kbps and have no DRM protection so you are free to do as you please with them
What about value for money?
Well, Napster's prices are very reasonable and in line with most of the top music download services.
The standard subscription plan gives you unlimited access to the full music library - either using the free software or through a web browser. Anything you listen to through this will be DRM encoded.
The Napster To Go plan gives you unlimited access to the music library plus the ability to copy tracks over to your portable player. The tracks are also DRM encoded and will stop playing on both your computer and your portable player if you cancel the subscription.
Tracks can also be purchased as DRM free MP3 files on any subscription plan -even the free one. This means you own the track and are free to copy it to any portable players (including the iPod) or burn it to CDs.
We think Napster is an excellent online music service. It only does music, but it does it well and with a huge catalogue of tracks. The prices for the subscription services and the download store are very reasonable and the quality of service is excellent. The only slight niggle was the software, but some may like it more than we did. If you are a real music buff and want the biggest library available from an online service Napster is for you.
