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Napster Review Napster is our top ranking music subscription service and winner of our No1Reviews.com No. 1 Choice Award! Read our independent reviews and user reviews and sign up for your FREE 7-day trial by following one of our links below...

Star Ratings: Number of Music Files: Quality of Music Files: Supplied Software : Ease of Use: Value for money: Technical support: Overall: Average User Review: No reviews

>> US users, get your FREE Trial at Napster.com (US/CA)

>> UK users, get your FREE Trial at Napster.co.uk (UK)

Cost to join Napster:

• Napster To Go costs $14.95 per month and 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
    
• Napster Standard costs $12.95 per month and gives you
  • Unlimited access to the whole music library
  • Access the music library from anywhere
  • Access to the MP3 Download Store
    
• Napster Lite is a free membership service and 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!
• Over 8 million DRM free songs
• Stream any tune up to three times for free!
• 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 (excluding the iPod)
• 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:

Napster takes first place in our top ten list of music download sites and wins of our No. 1 Choice Award. As you may recall, back in 1999 it was Napster that catalyzed a revolution the music industry when it made it easy for anyone to freely download music over the internet and share it with their peers. Although this free-for-all approach was in keeping with the egalitarian spirit upon which the internet was founded, it landed Napster in hot water as it amounted to copyright infringement. It took some time for the music industry to realize that the internet could be used as a medium through which they could legitimately sell music as well as a medium through which their music could be illegally shared. Fast forward 10 years and Napster has established itself as a fully-featured, totally legitimate music download service with millions of followers all over the world, including the musicians whose work they now sell. One of they key things that made this revolution possible was Digital Rights Management (DRM).

The Napster music library is the second biggest legal collection of tracks on the internet, with over 8 million DRM-free songs (iTunes has 11 million, Rhapsody 7 million). Even the most obscure artists we threw at the Napster library search page returned positive 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. 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. The user interface is polished and intuitive and is one of the most impressive interfaces of our recommended sites. When your compatible MP3 is connected, you can see its icon in the bottom right of the Napster user interface screen - to copy songs to your MP3 player you simply drag and drop them onto the icon - it's that easy! Mac users are at a disadvantage as the Napster software will only run on Windows. However, anyone, even Mac users, can access the subscription service through a web browser. This is a really cool feature because it lets you access the music library wherever you happen to be.

If you'd prefer to have unprotected tracks or albums, well you're in luck as Napster cater for that too. Tacks can be purchased as DRM-free MP3 files (encoded at high quality 256 kbps) on any of the subscription plans, even the free one. The lack of DRM protection means that you own the track and are free to copy it to any portable players (including an iPod) or burn it to CDs.

The best thing about Napster, in our view, is the free service it offers. As far as we know it's unique. 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 8 million tracks this means you could listen to 24 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 if it's available to you then we think you should jump at it, as we highly recommend it!

What about value for money? Well, Napster's prices are very reasonable and in line with most of the top music download services. Napster Standard 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.

Regarding Digital Rights Management (DRM), the tracks you listen to through Napster's various subscription services are all WMA files encoded at 128 kbps and protected by a DRM mechanism. This means that you don't really own the tracks, but are instead 'renting' them from Napster whenever you listen to them.

It also means that even with the Napster To Go service, the tracks will only work with a selection of compatible portable players. These include Sony, Creative, Samsung and compatible mobile phones. The most notable exclusion is the iPod. For a full list of compatible players we suggest that you check the Napster web site.

The Napster To Go plan gives you unlimited downloads on up to 3 PCs without paying per track, plus the ability to copy tracks over to your portable player. The tracks are DRM-encoded and will stop playing on both your computer and your portable player if you cancel the subscription.

iTunes may have a larger library (of 11 million DRM-free songs) but it doesn't offer a subscription-based service like Napster; instead, content is paid for per download. This factor was crucial in our decision to award Napster the No.1 Choice award, as the best online music service. It may only do music, but it does it extremely well. Its 8 million strong catalogue of tracks is certainly large enough to suit even those with very obscure musical preferences. The prices for the subscription services and the download store are very reasonable and the quality of customer service is outstanding. If you are a real music buff and want to subscribe to one of the biggest legal collections of tracks on the internet, then Napster is for you! To get your free trial, just click on the appropriate link below!

>> US users, get your FREE Trial at Napster.com (US/CA)

>> UK users, get your FREE Trial at Napster.co.uk (UK)

Napster Screenshots

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>> US users, get your FREE Trial at Napster.com (US/CA)

>> UK users, get your FREE Trial at Napster.co.uk (UK)

Napster.com - Video Commercials

Napster User Reviews

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