Entered CNET Catalog: 03/02/2005
SKU: CNETNAPSTER3.0
Manufacturer: Napster
Product summary
The good: Napster now offers a browser-based service and free accounts that let users stream almost any track in the Napster catalog, and these free accounts work on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers. The downloadable version includes personalized recommendations with the nifty Playlist of the Day feature and offers a streamlined community-friendly interface. Napster provides à la carte music purchases, as well as tethered and to-go music subscriptions, and the downloads are encoded as high-quality 192Kbps WMAs.
The bad: Songs streamed with Naspter's free account can be played only five times and are encoded at 32Kbps. Plus, free streaming doesn't work on Apple's Safari browser or Internet Explorer for Mac, and it has glitches with Firefox on a Mac. Virgin Digital and Yahoo Music Unlimited both offer cheaper subscription plans, and Napster's library doesn't monitor music folders for files created in other programs.
The bottom line: Napster often leads the field in new features and now offers a welcome free streaming plan--but it doesn't lead on price.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 05/08/2006
Editors' note: Napster's service details and rates have changed significantly since this review was posted. For more information, please read the updated article at the MP3 Insider blog.
Napster has twice revolutionized music downloading: first infamously by facilitating illegal downloads, then by popularizing the notion of "renting" music through its Napster To Go subscription plan. Now it's again offering free music but this time with a catch that makes it legal. Registered users can stream almost any song in the catalog five times with the new browser interface, although those songs can't be downloaded and are encoded at a low bit rate. The full Napster client, however, offers a fully featured music shopping experience with loads of custom recommendations, community features, and experienced editorial content. Bargain shoppers will still gravitate toward Yahoo Music Unlimited, which edge out Napster on price. But if it's an all-encompassing digital music shopping experience you're after, Napster's tough to beat.
The new online service, found at Napster.com, is well arranged and offers quick access to new releases, personal recommendations, music genres, and editor-created playlists. It's organized with a tabbed interface that lets you access the new Narchive and NapsterLinks sections, as well. The Narchive is a music encyclopedia wiki, with users doing most of the writing. It had barely begun at the time of this writing but showed promise. NapsterLinks are Web URLs to songs or albums that users can insert in their Web pages (see Features for more info). Clicking one lets registered users listen to that song free online. Navigating and using the online components is pleasantly simple.
As for the Napster client, the first thing you'll notice is a more streamlined home page than with previous versions. The look is designed to make it easier to find music--a novel idea, indeed. The search bar is still on top, but now it sits square in the middle of each page instead of the top-right corner. As with Napster 3.0, you can search for music by artist name, album, or track; you can also search for a particular Napster member or search purely in your library. Next to the search bar is a Browse Music drop-down menu, where you can search through Billboard charts or independent label content, or just browse by genre. Tucked in the upper-right corner is a button for accessing your music library. Gone are the tabs from the 3.0 version; instead, you get drop-down lists for features, radio, playlists, community, and extra options. In all, it has a less cluttered look and feel than the previous version--a welcome improvement.
The playlist column is always present on the right side of the screen and displays currently playing tracks, whether from your library or streamed from the Napster service. When you connect a Napster To Go-compatible device (one labeled PlaysForSure that uses Microsoft's Janus protocol), you get a small picture of the player in a box on the bottom-right corner, just beneath the playlist column. The player also shows up in your library as a folder. As with the previous version, you simply drag and drop songs to the box, which then displays the transfer status as a percentage. But what we like best about this transfer method is that you can continue to drag tracks into the box while music is transferring, and they'll be added to the queue. Virgin Digital offers this feature, but Yahoo Music Unlimited do not. You can use the latest version of Windows Media Player to transfer tracks purchased or downloaded from Napster.
The Napster client (currently version 3.6) runs only on Windows 2000 and XP. If you want a Napster To Go subscription, you'll need WMP 10 (XP only). Even if you don't, it's recommended to help speed streaming quality and rebuffering time. Subscribers can play their tracks on two portable devices and three computers with each Napster To Go account. If you want to connect an additional device, you must drop an existing one from the partner list.
Since Napster introduced its to-go service, with which you can download subscription tracks to compatible digital music players, Rhapsody, Yahoo, and Virgin Digital have all unveiled similar plans (and don't forgot AOL Music Now, currently in preview). Virgin Digital is the cheapest at $7.99 per month with no commitment, and Yahoo Music Unlimited follows at $11.99 per month. Napster, Rhapsody, and AOL Music Now all charge $14.95 a month to take your tracks to go. For all-you-can-eat tethered downloads (which can't be transferred or burned), Napster costs $9.99 per month. If you're new to subscription plans, be aware that downloaded tracks expire once you discontinue the subscription. To find out which MP3 players are compatible with Napster, use our music compatibility wizard.
Music is free on Napster once again--sort of. Napster's new online service lets people create free accounts that can stream almost any title from Napster's catalog of more than 2 million songs (among online music stores, Napster and Apple's iTunes Music Store have the largest catalogs). If a track is available for subscription, it's available for free streaming. There are a few catches, though: free users can stream a song only five times, tracks are encoded at a low 32Kbps, and users need to endure ads after every third track.
The online service is nice perk, since it lets you sample new music and works with any computer, but it's not perfect. We wish it had a playlist feature, so users could build and save song lists. That would be especially helpful for subscribers, who aren't bound by the five-stream limit. AOL Music Now is browser based and lets users save playlists, but the browser version of Rhapsody hasn't learned the trick either. We also wish that users could add songs to the now playing list. Currently, when listening to an album, you need to finish listening to the tracks before you can select more songs, otherwise those new choices will simply replace the existing ones.
Rhapsody is the only other service with a free online option, but its plan is a bit different. Rhapsody lets free users listen to 25 tracks each month, so it's more limited, but there are no ads between songs, and tracks are encoded at 128Kbps. We say don't choose--get an account with each.
Napster's online service features a new area called Narchive (the worst name to come out of a committee in some time), a user-created music encyclopedia with live links to songs. Still in beta as of this writing, it's an interesting attempt to bring some Web 2.0 user-created content into a music store, and we'll be curious to see if it takes off. Entries are currently slight. Users can create new entries or add comments or pictures to existing ones. Also new are NapsterLinks, which let people insert links to songs in their e-mails, instant messages, Web pages, and even wikis, by automatically generating the right code for each. You get the code by clicking the Share It icon on an album page or by doing a search from the NapsterLinks tab. Napster gives you the option of joining an affiliate network to make money (5 percent) from purchases that go through your links. Rhapsody has similar links, but they're not formatted for different uses, so they're not as simple to insert. Rhapsody also doesn't offer an affiliate plan, but on the plus side, users don't need to create a free account to listen to songs from a Rhapsody link.
For song purchases and downloads, you'll need the Napster client. Recent updates include new editorial content such as tributes to music legends and opinionated blogs written by musicians, journalists, and other industry personalities. Although the Napster service includes artist biographies, it may take a few clicks to get to them, depending on what screen you're on. Rhapsody has the right idea by putting artist bios front and center.
Personalization is the key to Napster. One of the most visible new features on the client's home page is Playlist of the Day. Napster creates this tailored list based on a combination of members' individual listening habits, music libraries, and professional musicologist recommendations. We were very impressed by this feature. We listen to a lot of jazz, so it was no surprise to see a playlist filled with contemporary jazz artists. But you're not tied down to a single playlist--you can click the Show Me Another link to view additional lists. After a few clicks, we got a list of the type of low-key moody-pop singers we favor: Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and the like. Yes, there was some familiar material on these lists, but much of it was new to us, so it's a great way to explore new artists. Subscribers can download the Playlist of the Day and transfer it to a compatible device by clicking the Take to Go button or simply play it as a stream on their PC. This isn't to be confused with the Playlist to Go feature, which is a predetermined mix of tunes based on theme or genre.
In another new feature, Napster automatically creates a playlist of the last 200 songs you played, and the Napster home page now displays the last three radio stations you selected. In a nod to Yahoo Music Engine, tracks are now encoded at 192Kbps, up from 128Kbps. All files are in WMA DRM format.
One of the highlights of Napster's content are the radio stations, which are really massive streaming compilations (most can be downloaded in their entirety if you're a subscriber) that have been preselected, though you can have Napster create custom stations based on criteria such as the contents of your music library. The available compilations are fantastic, and we like that you can skip tracks while listening to radio streams. We definitely appreciate the improved bit rate of streaming audio (192Kbps) and the fact that you can save radio stations as playlists, as well as easily purchase the tracks you like the most.
One personalization option that needs serious tuning is the feature that lets you explore other members' collections by genre. The way this works, however, is that if a member has just one song tagged to a particular genre amid a large collection, the member will show up in your search. In our jazz search, there were a lot of Twista and Kanye West songs to wade through before finding a handful of Duke Ellington tunes. The Now Streaming feature, also searchable by genre, similarly features some interesting associations. Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" appears in several jazz subcategories, and though we have nothing personal against Alicia Keys, we'd be hard-pressed to call her a blues musician.
Napster integrates with WMP 10, where you can view all your Napster content by purchased or downloaded tracks. Unlike WMP or Musicmatch, however, Napster's library still doesn't monitor your music folder to automatically add new tracks created in other programs. You can play purchased tracks or use your subscription on three PCs; in contrast, the iTunes Music Store lets you play songs on up to three networked Macs and PCs. To deauthorize a PC, simply call up the Manage My PCs option under the My Account pull-down menu.
XM Satellite Radio subscribers can use Napster's XM+Napster service to listen to XM channels online or to sync with an XM portable, such as the Pioneer Inno.
In our testing, Napster's new online streaming worked well on Windows computers, and the 32Kbps streaming rate didn't bother us. Sure, music didn't sound as rich as on a CD, but it was at least as good as FM radio. On a Mac, though, we uncovered serious performance issues, which the company acknowledged. The pop-up music player window works fine on Macs for the first song or two, but the controls inevitably freeze, and users can't adjust the volume, pause playback, or skip ahead or back in the playlist. That's not all: online streaming doesn't work with Safari or Internet Explorer on Macs, so you're limited to Firefox. Safari support is coming eventually, we were told.Testing the Napster client's speed by transferring tracks to a portable device, we found it to hold a respectable middle ground between our winners, Yahoo Music Unlimited and Rhapsody, and the slowpoke of the bunch, Virgin Digital. For more numbers, see our subscription music guide. Song downloads began almost immediately, and even though streaming playlists were delayed by a few seconds, it wasn't excessive. Streaming tracks sounded as clear as ever, comparable with the quality you get from Rhapsody.
You can burn any number of purchased or imported tracks to CD using Roxio's popular engine, which is integrated into the software. In our tests, burning was fast and worked flawlessly. We'd still love to see the line-in encoding feature standard on most jukeboxes.
The Napster client offers built-in support and documentation, which consists of well-written FAQs and a detailed user guide. If you have a specific query that's not answered by either, you can fill out and submit an online help form. E-mail support is available 24 hours, seven days a week. We sent a query from an anonymous e-mail and received a response in three days--not exactly the speed we were hoping for, but luckily, most of our questions were addressed by the aforementioned guide and FAQs page.User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68out of 68 user reviews
No Equalizer, no DFX plug -ins....no imagination!
Pros: Nothing really. It's a gas guzzler (front-end memory is immediately affected) and the quality of the songs played back are terrible. Playlists are fair but not a whole lot of imagination.
Cons: Can't stream the music through WMP. The plug-in has been restricted. Funny how they leave that part out. A shame actually!
out of 68 user reviews
TRAP! NOT user friendly! WARNING DO NOT BECOME MEMBER!
Pros: There are simply no pros to this, sorry, you are a bad company and should go away, since you are just setting up people who wanted an alternative to I-tunes.
Cons: HARD to download songs and navigate the website. The songs will let you download 3 times and WILL charge you 3 times! THERE IS A DIFFERENCE between purchase and download!! DO not become member, the price is NOT worth it.
out of 68 user reviews
Newest version of the Napster service greatly improved
Pros: I've tried the new Napster service and is great for discovering new music and actually owning music this time around--for the same price of a dowload would cost anyway. I can also direct the music that I purchase to be added automatically to itunes.
Cons: The program is completely web-based, which does cause some occasional slow down when streaming songs.
The site is easy enough to navigate. I set up the account quickly and was off browsing music. I would occasionally have to wait for the pages to load as it sent the streams or loaded artist pages. (& I was able to find some rather obscure Jazz titles I was looking for).
After using only the streaming function for about a month I finally decided to test the download option and use some of the song credits. (It turns out the credits will expire if you don't use them by the time your streaming subscription expires). I tried a few singles first and napster prompted a pop-up for their download client and then asked me what program I would be using to play my music. I selected itunes and when the songs finished downloading they were automatically added to itunes without me having to add the folder/files manually.
Next I tried an album to see how it applied the credits to an album purchase. I downloaded a jazz album that had 11 tracks but cost $7.95. Napster applied 8 song credits for the purchase. (I was almost expecting them to apply 11 for each song.)
So far I really like this new napster service. I'm still old school in that I still buy mostly CD's, but I like the ability to preview albums, discover new music from the playlists, and purchase drm free mp3s all for the price a song download would cost anyway.
Napster is an excellent value, even if you use the streaming sporadically.
Updated on Oct 17, 2009Sorry about the grammer. I didn't proof-read.
out of 68 user reviews
Napster Lies
Pros: uhm, they're popular : )
Cons: Napster wants your credit card number..... Don't trust them!
I'm sure this rule is in fine print somewhere stuffed in between 10,000 other words but who gonna take time to read 10,000 words to get a couple of downloads. Give me a break Napster.
In the end napster gets my $15 and the starving music artist that I wanted to support gets only 5 downloads.
out of 68 user reviews
Not really improved much...
Pros: You can stream songs and price is OK
Cons: Is now owned by Best Buy. Catalog seems to be not as intensive as they make it sound. The program itself is badly designed has too many pop up windows and not a "stand alone" media player.
out of 68 user reviews
Big mistake
Pros: Napster has nice player, but so do other services.
Cons: The worst service.
They gave me a free crappy Napster mp3 player that stopped working, so I bought a Sony. I didn't deactivate the crappy napster mp3 player when I activated the Sony.
But when I bought 2 more Sandisk Sansa Clip, I see that Napster is showing that I have 3 activated. Three?
With their rules of only one deactivation of the player each month. I can only activate 1 of the Sansa Clips, and I'll have to wait for another month to activate the other one. I tried to call but was on hold for more than an hour. I gave up.
I did not have this problem with Emusic.
out of 68 user reviews
Overpriced and many songs not available
Pros: 30 free days. Not too difficult to cancel, though you do have to call rather than cancel online.
Cons: Many songs are not available without buying the MP3 for 99 cents (even though you pay for subscription). It's a little overpriced for what you get.
out of 68 user reviews
Wanted one song, got $15 a month subscription
Pros: I was able to quickly find a song I wanted to download.
Cons: I was surprised two months later to find I had inadvertently signed up for the "Napster to Go" subscription at $14.95 a month. Napster refunded one month only. Felt like a scam.
out of 68 user reviews
Very poor customer service
Pros: Haven't seen one yet
Cons: Buggy system that appears to increasingly take peoples money without supplying the goods
out of 68 user reviews
very happy with my experience overall
Pros: excellent customer service, file quality is unquestionably good
Cons: Being an mp3 man, I find the WMA DRM protected 192 kps file system Napster employs to be rather annoying in that while using the To Go service you have to reconnect every month with your player.
out of 68 user reviews
WHAT THE ATT & or napster
Pros: Decent Selection
Cons: Subscription & Not working on Tilt?
out of 68 user reviews
Serious problems for serious folks
Pros: 192k wma resolution
Cons: DRM, missing tracks, unstructured cataloging system, poor search engine
out of 68 user reviews
Naptster-to-go is PERFECT
Pros: 5 million-plus songs, great software interface, easy to use - THIS ROCKS!!!
Cons: Really can't think of ANY
I can't believe the low reviews of this service. First up the complaints about the iPod's lack of support. That's iPods fault, not Napster. I hate iPods, in fact I hate iEverything. iPods have just about the worst audio quality of any MP3 player out there. And you're stuck with iTunes! You HAVE to BUY their music. Apple/Mac is sticking it to their customers and they don't even know it or are just too stupid to realize it. Listen to a Creative Labs MP3 player and you'll never go back to iPod.
Now, on to the subject at hand. I finally decided to jump on the music subscription bandwagon. I see a lot of people complaining about having to buy the songs, and burning CD's. People - CD's are not going to be around in 10 years. Cut the cord. It's all going to be MP3 players and music on your computers. And that's coming from an old guy!
So, after some research I decided to try Napster-to-go. I love it. $14.95 a month and I get access to a catalogue of over 5 million songs. Sure, there are some artists you can't get access to because they are holding out to try to still sell their music on CD. Don't worry, they'll come around. Some of these artists are my favorites too. If you REALLY love a band and just absolutely HAVE to have it on CD then buy the CD or pay for the songs. Like I said, I've got over 1,000 CD's. You eventually get bored with even that much stuff.
I just bought my fifth Creative Labs MP3 player, the new 16GB Zen, and subscribed to Naptser-to-go. The only glitch I had was trying to pay for Napster with PayPal. I'm not sure who's fault that was but I ended up just going with my credit card and all was fine after that.
Downloading the software was a snap and installation was a breeze. I'm running XP Pro on a Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop with Windows Media Player 11. No problems what-so-ever. Once the program was running I was able to search out all my favorite songs on so many playlists, radio stations and other ways. I quickly had several hundred songs from my youth I'd totally forgotten about by going over the Billboard top 100 from the 1970s. The software was very intuitive and easy to use and understand. I read through the online User Guide and it is well-written and easy to understand also.
I really love the Automix feature, the abiliity to find playlists from other members and the Napster recommendations. I've downloaded hundreds of new artists that I've never heard of before using these features alone. You can find great new music by playing a song you love and clicking on Automix and then you'll get a nice sampling of songs from similar artists, genres, etc. Another neat thing is to play a song, right click it, and select find in member playlists. This brings up every Napster member who has this song in their library. You can then look at what they have in their playlists to find cool, new stuff you'd never heard of before.
You can run this software on up to three different computers and three different MP3 players! Thats unbelievable. Now me and my two kids can load up our MP3 players to capacity with all the music we love.
When I plugged in my brand new MP3 player Napster immediately recognised it and set it up. I was downloading my playlists to the Zen in seconds. And it's set up so everytime I hook the player up to the computer it now automatically adds or removes any songs I add or remove to my playlists.
I'm sorry, but I just can't see any down side to this service. Yes, you're only renting the music. But for the shear volume you can get for that price how can you complain. If you need it on CD then you'll have to pay for it and you can then keep it. If you're just looking to pay a one-time feel to load up your MP3 player forever then get a clue and go back to Shareaza or whatever.
I think if you understand going into it what you're getting then you will like it. Those just looking for free music can always just go back to stealing it through one of the many P2P websites out there and pray they don't get caught. I'm seeing articles everyday in the paper about people being taken to court for downloading music illegally and paying fines of 5 and 10 thousand dollars just to avoid going to court! No thanks. For me - I've found nirvana, I'm in heaven.
If you like a ton of new music at your fingertips and have a great MP3 player then don't be afraid to try out this service. If you're a music guy like me, you won't be disappointed!
M.
out of 68 user reviews
It's not perfect, but it has great potential.
Pros: You can try some (but not all) songs before you buy; Track packs help cut the cost of buying music.
Cons: Some songs must be purchased before you can download them; Various issues with downloading songs, licenses, and burning CDs.
If you're like me, you hate the idea of spending $10 or more on a CD that only has 1 or 2 songs that you like. Therefore, the idea of buying only the songs that you really want is very appealing. I chose the Napster subscription service because it allows me to download songs (with some exceptions) and listen to them for an extended period of time before deciding on which ones to buy. I feel that listening to a 30-second clip is not enough for me to make a purchase decision. I really need to listen to the entire song at least once (and often several times) before I decide I like it.
What I normally do is download a whole bunch of songs (as much as my hard drive will hold) and listen to them for a week or two. Most of the songs end up as duds, so I'll probably only keep a few of them and delete the rest. Now, if I had used a non-subscription service, I would have to pay for every song that I downloaded, even the ones that I don't want. Since I have a Napster subscription, I can keep downloading as many songs as I want for a flat fee of $9.95/month. This allows me to experiment with different types of music and not worry whether or not an individual song is worth downloading.
Of course, what you're really doing is renting music. It's not really yours unless you buy it. If you stop subscribing to Napster, you lose all your songs. So if you want to keep a song forever, you're going to have to buy it. You'll also need to buy a song if you want to burn it to a CD.
Napster's standard rate is 99 cents per song. However, if you have the Napster subscription service, you're eligible to purchase track packs. They're prepaid credits that come in various quantities (15 songs for $13.95, 25 songs for $21.95, and 50 songs for $39.95). If you do the math, it comes out to between 80 to 93 cents per song, but remember, this is on top of the $9.95/month that you're already paying. Plus your credits will expire in 1 year if you don't use them up. So if you buy a track pack, you'll pay up front, but you'll get a slight discount if you use your credits before they expire.
Typically I'll buy a 50-song track pack and use it up for a song here and there. Since I've screened each and every song, every one of them is a keeper. I'll then burn a bunch of them to a CD as a backup. This is a safeguard in case my hard drive crashes or my DRM licenses get corrupted for some reason. (I can also play the CD in a regular CD player.)
Some of you may be wondering about the Napster To Go service. I didn't choose it because my MP3 player is not compatible with it. Nevertheless, I don't feel that I'm missing much. You see, the Napster To Go service does NOT entitle you to unlimited CD burns. So if you want to burn a song to a CD, you still have to buy it, even if you have Napster To Go. I guess Napster To Go would be appropriate for someone who listens to their music exclusively on a compatible MP3 player who also doesn't want to back up their songs to CD.
When I want to put songs on my MP3 player, I use Windows Media Player to rip the songs that I just burned to CD with Napster. I can then transfer the resulting MP3 files via USB cable. I can also burn a set of MP3 files to a CD for use in my car, since my car CD player can read MP3 files.
For all you tech geeks out there, Napster files are protected WMA files normally encoded at 192 kbps. So you can directly transfer files from your hard drive to a compatible MP3 player that supports protected content.
So, what's bad about Napster? Well, some songs are only available for purchase, even if you have a Napster subscription... and yes, they tend to be the most popular songs. If you try to download those songs without buying them, you can only get a 30-second clip. Ideally it would be better if the entire catalog would be available for download, but I guess the recording studios don't want that. So you're stuck with buying them outright.
You can also get problems with licenses getting corrupted. One day I couldn't download files and I got an "error 1017" message instead. The error 1017 problem also had another nasty side-effect -- it double- or even triple-charged me for song purchases. So Napster would charge me 2 or 3 credits out of my track pack instead of using only 1 credit. When I contacted customer service, they sent me an e-mail saying that I needed to uninstall, then reinstall Windows Media Player to fix my licenses since an error 1017 message usually means that the licenses are corrupted. I followed the instructions in the e-mail, but the reinstall failed.
Ironically, though, my problem resolved itself, and I was able to download songs normally. I think the whole issue was a Windows problem and the act of reinstalling fixed everything (even though the reinstallation failed). This is why I back everything up to CD just in case it happens again.
To take care of the extra charges, I clicked on the billing history icon in the Napster program to have it e-mail my entire purchase history for the past 90 days. I forwarded this e-mail to customer service with an explanation of my situation, and they credited me 9 songs because I had 9 extra charges. This took several e-mails, but I was very polite and persistent. (By the way, their phone number is 1-800-839-4210, and they're available from 9 AM - 10 PM EST.)
I also had some weird problem where I couldn't play a song because Napster reported that a newer version of the song was available. I had to delete the song from within the Napster program, then use the "copy library" option to re-download the song. Warning: You can only do this 3 times, otherwise you'll get an "error 1016" message (which means that you're downloading the same song too many times). Again, this is another reason to back up your songs to a CD.
Napster apparently uses a simplified CD burning program that is very hardware dependent. Sometimes I get buffer underruns that ruin my CDs because my computer is not fast enough. To get around this, I set my burning speed in the Napster program to the slowest setting. I also try to use CD-R instead of CD-RW since I get underruns more often with CD-RW. I only use CD-RW if I don't have enough songs to fill up an entire CD-R. Burning 1 or 2 songs to CD-RW seems to be fine, so I use a bunch of CD-RW discs until I have enough songs to burn to a single CD-R. I then copy the songs on the CD-RW to a single CD-R, then erase the CD-RW discs so that I can reuse them. Again, this seems to be an issue because I don't have the latest and greatest PC out there.
In conclusion:
1. If you know exactly which songs you want and you don't need to try out songs before you make your decision, you can probably use any music service that meet your price requirements and music tastes.
2. If you want to try out songs before you buy, you should get a subscription-based service, like the Napster subscription service.
3. If you mostly use your MP3 player, you like to experiment with songs on it, and your MP3 player is compatible, you might want to consider Napster To Go, but you should probably try out the regular subscription service first and upgrade to Napster To Go if your needs still aren't met.
4. If you have an iPod, you may want to consider Napster as a companion to iTunes since iTunes does not have a subscription service (as far as I know). While Napster does not have AAC files, iPods can play regular MP3 files, which you can create from Napster as I have described above. (I personally use iTunes for podcasts and videos, even though I don't own an iPod.)
out of 68 user reviews
Horrible service!!!
Pros: NONE to think of!
Cons: Difficult to use, horrible customer support!
out of 68 user reviews
I'm Hooked
Pros: 1. enormous selection; 2. intuitive user interface; 3. editorial reviews; 4. build your own radio station feature; 5. Search other user's libraries; 6. many good playlists
Cons: 1. Doesn't play well with ie7 or WMP11; 2. Hangs occasionally (see #1)
out of 68 user reviews
Do Not Use
Pros: Costs less than iTunes if used some ways
Cons: doesn't work with ipod, all of your music is deleted when you stop subscribing
out of 68 user reviews
Terrible software !!!!
Pros: Nice Selection of Music
Cons: Terrible software, multiple conflicts.
out of 68 user reviews
Napster is best suited for the younger generation
Pros: unlimited downloads, excelent selection, ease of use
Cons: It's not free and you can't keep your songs
out of 68 user reviews
very comprehensive site
Pros: great community
Cons: log in is a little tough
out of 68 user reviews
best out there
Pros: easy interface
Cons: some artists not yet available
out of 68 user reviews
Works perfect *for my needs*
Pros: Reliable, lean software, pretty good selection
Cons: song rental arrangement
Having recently switched from Yahoo! Musicmatch's abysmally unreliable and system-resources-devouring software, I'm thrilled at how lean and reliable Napster's software is.
out of 68 user reviews
Brought music is now unplayable
Pros: None that I can see now
Cons: Can't play music I have purchased
David
P.S. their customer support suxs, You have to email them and wait 2 days to get a reply, if you are lucky, if you aren't they down't reply at all.
out of 68 user reviews
decent selection, easy interface
Pros: song selection
Cons: pay to get some songs
Pretty good "free" (with subscription) selection, have things as obscure as the Detroit Cobras, Flogging Molly, and Lucky Boys Confusion, so I was happy. Takes them awhile to get new releases sometimes... and of course some artists never allow them to have their songs free (Janet Jackson looking at you) or any of their songs (Metallica or the Beatles).
out of 68 user reviews
Umm, yeah, Napster SUCKS
Pros: There are pros?
Cons: Read my review
Let's start with their failed attempts at trying to create personalization, shall we?
I click on the playlist of the day function. Seems pretty cool, although, it isn't very original- Rhapsody does it, and has more functionality (with individual song plays, download feature, and drag n drop to the now playing "area"). I create the playlist, seems like it knows my tastes. But, oh wait, I can't just pick ONE song to play, it has to be all. Wow, they sure are presumptuous with their reccomendations! (Their flare for assumptions in my taste is incorrect, I only liked ONE song from the ENTIRE LIST OF 15).
Let's move on to the song-Q (now playing area- btw, whey the heck is it called that? Are ALL the songs playing at the same darn time? NO. So why call it the Now Playing area? I mean really! Hell, even if it were called "Song Pool" or "Digital Waiting Room" would make more sense! But again, it is based on the WMP ideology, so there is the incompetence.) Anywho, rant over..... The "Q" is sorta neat, albiet a standard feature. So I am playing a song i really like, and finding more music. I like my list.... I REALLY like my list so I click "save" thinking, hmm the entire LIST would be saved as a playlist. Umm, no. I guess Napster doesn't do things the easy way? Well you find that out quickly. Instead? It makes a play list of the currently selected OR playing song. WOW. Umm, yeah, they are retarded. So, I have to do a CTRL+A (select all) to get ALL the songs to be on the playlist to be saved. WHY? Rhapsody does it, in far fewer clicks, and saved me from having to down tylenol. OMG!!! (Who would pay per month for this crap!)
I have yet to use many of the other, far more "interesting" features (I just love the embedded ad "learn how to use Napster To Go"- is it really that hard to just plug in a device and say "copy music"?).
Anyone else think this is the worst music service... EVER?
out of 68 user reviews
They will steal your money
Pros: Haven't used their service long enough to know
Cons: They ripped me off
out of 68 user reviews
A lot of misunderstandings here
Pros: Large Catalog, Pleasant interface
Cons: standalone client dodgy on older machines, WMA files sound harsh with drums
out of 68 user reviews
Perfect to try out alot of music
Pros: More music than you could ever listen to, and you can listen to all the songs napster has up to five times for FREE!
Cons: When you stop paying the music stops at the end of that month
out of 68 user reviews
Over-rated IPOD Bandwagon Con-Artists
Pros: Finally got rid of it!!!
Cons: Everything you can imagine
out of 68 user reviews
Terrible software, have had nothing but problems and conflicts with the software
Pros: Has a large list of both new and old songs
Cons: Don't own any of the music you use if you have napster to go, terrible software
out of 68 user reviews
I'm old alraedy, Don't have time to WAITTTTTT
Pros: There ARE NONE!!!!!
Cons: I can WRITE music faster than it downloads
TTTTHHHHHPPPPPPTTTTTTTQ!
out of 68 user reviews
Consider Napster the "music addicts" dream-come-true!"
Pros: Outstanding as a music resource. Very intuative and fun.
Cons: The "napster experience" comes to a halt due to a limited music catalog .
Those subscribers who feel "ripped-off" because their downloads are gone when they stop subscribing are missing the point. I am a music fanatic and Napster should be considered any music fanatic's dream. It is so easy to use Napster's crossreferencing interface to find and explore all kinds of new and old music. It's incredible! The ability to sample and explore so much music without having to pay $14 bucks for a "so-so" cd with one or two good songs is worth everything! I used to spend thousands (really, thousands) buying cds for one or two songs only to find out the rest of the music I PAID FOR was crap!
Napster is a great tool for music fans and in the end has saved me tons of money! So the $10 monthly subscription fee, in my opinion, is a bargain. Once I find songs I like and want--I pay for them--and own them forever! at 99 cents a song (or less in bulk).
Think of Napster as a kind of satellite radio on steroids! The monthly fee is for the service, to listen to and preview music. Then if you want the music, you buy it. I understand that paying for music is a little too old-fashioned for some of you.
My only criticism is that the catalog boasts over a million songs, but more often than I'd like, a song or artist I'm looking for is not available. Otherwise, Napster is pure gold.
Earlier post mentioned obscure music offered by Napster as one of the services weaknesses. However, I have noticed in the last 6 months a major push to get just about anything and everything as part of their offerings. Thanks Napster!
Note: Napster download cards are becoming less and less common. For example, Best Buy was my usual source for Napster cards. Recently Best Buy has dumped Napster cards for their own Rhapsody based cards. This is very unfortunate.
out of 68 user reviews
Love Napster to Go - Stop whining
Pros: Rent songs, Large List of Artists, take them with you
Cons: Some bugs when moving to player (getting better)
I worked in a music store as a teen and one of my favorite perks was getting to listen to any album in the store. Napster give me that feeling again. Some people say that renting music is not like renting a movie since a movie is usually only enjoyed one time. My reaction to that is that music is similar to movies in that the "Great" ones you own, and keep forever, but the guilty pleasures and the art pieces are rented for a one time view/listen.
out of 68 user reviews
FALSE ADVERTISEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pros: Good selection of music
Cons: THEY NEVER TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE NOT BUYING YOUR MUSIC!!!!!!!!
NAPSTER SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
out of 68 user reviews
$9.95 OUT THE WINDOW!
Pros: It looks good, good organization of artists and genre
Cons: so many problems, so little support, very misleading membership information
Anyway, the streaming didn't work, and on Napsters own message boards there were a zillion people complaining about the recent bugs and error messages.
I tried the 7 day trail a month earlier there was eternal buffering while trying to listen to streaming music. I got 1 good day out of the 7. I sent email for help and I received an email so complicated that I would have to resurrect Einstein to decifer.
I guess I liked the way Napster was set up and hoped things would be smoother once I was a paying customer. NOT!
Ok, I canceled the service after one day - that should have been the end of it. Well the rep told me I would have use of the serivce for the 30 days I paid for. NOT! I was switched over to Napster Lite immediately and I have paid $9.95 for no days of music! I did all the necessary updates, fixes and magic and the error messages kept coming.
All I want to do is listen to music. Why is this so hard!!?!?!?!
Radio feature was useless. Thanks for going through so much trouble to create a custom radio for me THAT NEVER WORKED! It would load about 15 songs and one by one gave me an error message.
Is there a music service out there that's not trying to trick me out of my money? $1 per song is starting to look better and better with each service I try.
out of 68 user reviews
Buggy software will make you screem and pull your hair out!!
Pros: Some of the preselected "playlist-to-go" are convienient...providing they transfer correctly
Cons: Software is quirky and hit-or-miss — sometimes works sometimes doesn't
Often I can't even log on to Napster for some reason. Overloaded servers maybe?
After finally loading a Napster® "My Flash MP3 Player" with "Napster-To-Go®" songs, I turn the player on and the unit's screen tells me that to continue to play the songs I must first sync the player. ISN'T THAT WHAT I JUST DID? Oh boy, very frustrating. And of course I find this out when I'm 10 miles from my PC!
I don't recommend Napster. Not until they get their act together.
After a three month trial, I decided not to continue with napster®. Like a dummy, I didn't burn 3 CD's that I had actually purchased. Consequently, the wma's won't play any more. DRM licence needed. I'm peeved needless to say.
out of 68 user reviews
Poor tech support
Pros: good music selection
Cons: poor support, DRM unreliable, bad Win32 client, hard to transfer to port player
out of 68 user reviews
XM and Napster? How much better can it get?
Pros: XM, listen to unlimited music for about $10 per month!
Cons: Can only restore music 3 times.
out of 68 user reviews
Napster is a pain! ads ads ads
Pros: Moving tracks to other systems
Cons: Paying to manage your music
Come on, keep it simple!!! The interface is terrible. I timeout constantly and have to re-sign in. I have to click through sales pitches to get to my purchased tracks. It's just a pain!!!
We demand better software!!
out of 68 user reviews
Napster, it's not for everyone
Pros: Large selection. Fast, safe, and not difficult to use.
Cons: Monthly fee + fee per song if you want to do anything with it.
Step 1: upload songs to MP3 player.
Step 2: Plug MP3 player output to sound card input.
Step 3: Use recording program on computer to record the music from the MP3 player and save as any format your heart desires.
out of 68 user reviews
Excellent music service.
Pros: A TRUCKLOAD of music available, $5 extra a month lets you put music on compatible MP3 player
Cons: Player a bit limited in functionality, limited music video selection, no audiobooks or movie soundtracks, limited number of compatible MP3 players
out of 68 user reviews
Best Sub-based serivce
Pros: EZ to use,awesome player setup(way better then itunes) fast downloads
Cons: Not as many songs as Msn
out of 68 user reviews
Napster Canadian edition A Good try before you buy option.
Pros: Ability to Listen online or take it to your portable player. No credit card required can buy subscription cards and song purchuse cards at retailers
Cons: Some songs not aviable for the Napster to go.
Another plus is that it dose not require a credit card!! You can purchase subscription cards and music purchase card allowing more people access to the service
I don’t know what the other posts really have against it, Video rental business has been around a long time no one has said its a really crappy system I pay 5 dollars to have a movie I only get to watch and keep for 2 day then if I want to keep it I have to pay another $20 dollars what a rip off !!!!! There screwing us over!!! Please look at what it really is a rental business with the option to buy if you like what you’re listening to.
I use a Zen Micro had to do a firmware upgrade to my player but after that I was good to go I currently have 2 Laptops and my desktop system registered and have been able to sync up with all three with no issue.
I'm still not sold on purchase of DRM based music (Including CD's) if I buy something I want the ability to choose when and by what means I play it back!
The music stores listening posts don't seam to cut it standing there with others waiting for their turn and stores putting time limits doesn’t give me a chance to realy listen to the music and with my tastes of music going largely with my mood or setting I can’t always give a good subjective opinion if it's something I should purchase. For now Napster to go fits for my wanting to try new music and the ability to take it with me at a click of the mouse and a quick download, this service fits perfectly with me as an addition to my usual CD purchase.
Some one can correct me if I'm wrong but I find the biggest flaw in ALL online DRM based music punches, There is no easy way to sell the music you have bought!. If I no longer want a CD I can sell it, trade it, of give it away to my kid sister but all these online music stores the song are almost like the case of herpes there yours for life. With no easy way of getting rid of something you’re bored of or no longer interested in. One more reason I'll keep buying CD's and just rent music to try before I buy
Well have had the service for almost 4 months now since then i have add the use of a 8gb Zen micro photo and passed on the 5gb to my wife who was never really in to the use of mp3 players or Napster is now a big user the she every though she would have been. So between me an my wife we now have 13gb of portable music that we use in the car around the house and for me on my daily commute and at work.
We have down loaded over 3500 tracks and growing and have maxed out the limit of three computers. Using it on our main desktop computer, laptop and one I use at work. Find the update of the Licence every month quite quick on the Zen's and the Napster software prompts when that time is needed to attach the player. I'm finding down loading stuff that I would never other wise buy and also out of convenience music of Cd's I already own but have not yet riped just form the convenience of typing in a name of artist or album then click download album and the rest takes care of its self.
I still have not bought any tracks as I'm still not sold on that concept. I want a physical media or the ability to make it in to one unfortunately the current bit rate is not high enough for my liking because if it is burned to a disk and you cease to use the service turning it back to MP'3 you have a loss in music quality then what you would have form orgional comercial CD's.
out of 68 user reviews
Rental makes SENSE saves $$$'s
Pros: Stay current, download unlinited times, save $$$
Cons: NONE except people don't call you ipod sheep
I WAN'T TO RENT RENT RENT !!
I have bought 3 songs through digital downloading and I don't get anymore use or enjoyment out of them than renting.
P.S. Some people buy smokes at $10 bucks a pack a maybe 1 or two times a week. After xx amount of years they have nothing to show for it other than maybe lung cancer.
The amount of money I spend on renting is small and manageable. I get to freely download pretty much whatever I want and I won't be asked for a dollar a song. Every Tuesday new albums come out. Sometimes as many as 5 albums that I am wanting to hear. $50 - 60 bucks every Tuesday so I can listen to each album a couple of times and than toss them in the closet so to speak? DON'T think so.
I used to collect cassettes and where are they now? Probably in a landfill. I bought used cd's from a pawn shop and how often do I listen to them? Rarely ever.
I will support music subscriptions 100%
I will probably never buy another track in the foreseeable future unless some amazing thing happenned.
Why not have both options to satsify both the renter's and the buyer's?
There are lot's of way's of wasting $15 a month every month for the rest of your life and in the end having nothing to show for it.
When I collected cassettes I could never get enough because I was alway's running out of money. With "renting" it's ALL GOOD!
I have no intrest in audio grabbing xx amount of songs and than cancelling just because I could. When I pay a smalll and reasonable price for my music I enjoy the nusic more and I feel good about supporting musicians.
Renting gives me all the music I want when I want it old and new. I can keep up with music in way's I never could if owning was my only option. If you want to only buy and own fine, but don't think you speak for me.
FOR ME RENTING MAKES SENSE AND SAVES ME THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!!
out of 68 user reviews
If you're looking to use Napster-to-go, wait for the next version
Pros: Fun and addicting to use. Download for hours without restriction.
Cons: Full of bugs, crashes, and inconsistencies.
I've been using Napster for about a month and I'm totally addicted. I find myself sitting down to download just a couple tracks then end up spending hours browsing through all the recommended artists and finding some real gems.
However, when it comes time to transfer music to my Rio, it often becomes an exercise in frustration. Tracks refuse to transfer, program crashes, and I find myself banging alt-ctrl-del repeatedly the way I used to back in the Windows 98 days. Did I mention Napster is a resource hog? It'll dominate your computing power and won't share processing power with any other programs...If you try, it'll crash.
Bewarned: I started out with Creative Zen Micro and switched to Rio Carbon because tracks took so darn long to switch on the Zen. It turns out, it wasn't the player. Each time a song plays, the player has to process its license info. Most of the time it's about 3-5 sec delay, which I can stomach, but sometimes it takes over 30 sec!!! That's rediculous. Microsoft was so bent on creating a bulletproof encryption that the player can't even handle it!
In conclusion, wait for the next version. Napster-to-go still has long way to-go before it works out it's bugs.
out of 68 user reviews
Renting Music
Pros: Runs great, Software is streamlined and smartly written
Cons: You don't own the music, some songs you have to pay 99cents for
The bad? Well for one, you do not own the music you download, your simply renting the music. What I mean is, yes you can download thousands a songs a month if you want but there not yours, there only yours as slong as you keep your subscription. The only way to keep it for life with out the subsciprtion is to actually buy the music at 99cents per song. It's a great concept considering you can have 10 thousand songs in the course of a year but you wouldn't have spent $10,000 but if you want your music for life this isnt' any different from itunes. If your a music junkie and don't want to pay every time a new ablum comes out, this is a great service to have, not to mention it works with DRM WMA capable players so you can take the music where ever you want with the napster to go package. If your materialistic you might find this hard to swallow, but if you just want music now, it's great. Also, the radio station streams are pretty nifty, there not really streams there just playlists thrown together and you can fast forward, change the song or even download the song your listening to, that's a great feature. Along with that, the downloads are always lighting fast, I'm on a 1.5MB DSL connection and I get a maxed out download speed every time I download a song, it also downloads songs by twos to speed up the transfer instead of just downloading it all at once.
Some more bad: Napster is slick, on some albums they keep the popular songs on the album at 99cents and leave the left overs as regular downloads which is kind of shady if you just want the song because you just like it, but dont want to buy it. That really gets under my skin, if you pay 14 bucks a month, you should get at least get to rent all the songs not just be forced to buy it.
All in all, it's a great service with some bads, but the good out weighs the bad. Try it out for a week, and if you love it you'll always love it.
out of 68 user reviews
THEY ARE FULL OF B.S!!!!!!!!!!!! NOBODY SHOULD HAVE TO GO THROUGHT THIS
Pros: IT IS "LEGAL"
Cons: well were do i start.......first of all napster is way to expensive, I mean $9.95 a month is crazy + $1.00 for each song......costomer support doesnt know what they are saying,....read below for rest
out of 68 user reviews
Lots of Choice, Lousy Sound
Pros: Lots of choices and hard to find tracks
Cons: Poor Sound quality
The bad news is that the sound quality is lousy. The lower ranges are too cranked and muddy, and the high ranges are tinny and hiss. Bass drums thud and sound muffled, and singers using "s" sounds hiss terribly.
out of 68 user reviews
Hard to navigate and download issues.
Pros: Lots to choose from. Looks like a good value if you are a heavy downloader
Cons: Confusing to navigate - poor design. The Napster to Go feature does not support older dell DJ.
unattractive mess to navigate. Also, I downloaded a 2 CD album and found the songs downloaded in the wrong order. Many of the songs broke off at the very end and there were no pause between songs. I'm still trying to navigate my way to customer service to find out if I can download the album again or how to correct problems. The Napster To Go feature doesn't support my older model Dell Dj. If iTunes and Napster are the best the online music industry can do, than the consumer is really stuck. Come on people, you can do better!
out of 68 user reviews
You'd have to use this for 55 years to equal the ITunes Cost!
Pros: Incredible Selection, Reasonable Fee, More MP3 Players than ITunes, Nice Interface
Cons: Some bugs, somewhat cumbersome to load tracks.
out of 68 user reviews
Napster to Go kinda sucks
Pros: 1million songs for 15 bucks a month!
Cons: drm causes song delays, YOU FORMAT AND REFILL YOUR PLAYER EVERY MONTH! It'll never be CD Quality.
out of 68 user reviews
Napster rocks
Pros: Everything they say is true
Cons: de-authorizing a pc is difficult.
out of 68 user reviews
Great! Love it! Perfect Companion for MCE2005 and Zen Micro
Pros: To go service is good value, good radio streams, Fast, Works Well from MCE2005
Cons: Not all songs allow you to stream/download; have to maintain a subscription
out of 68 user reviews
Do Not Download!!
Pros: Lots of songs
Cons: Must pay for each song AS WELL AS a monthly fee.
out of 68 user reviews
You wish you had a better service
Pros: It's Napster,the company who stupidly went against Metallica
Cons: Everything else
out of 68 user reviews
Makes iTunes obsolete
Pros: Napster To Go allows unlimited downloads for less than $15 per month! Plug-and-play for your car is amazing, its like bringing your entire music library on the road. More content than iTunes.
Cons: Album purchases should have a better discount.
out of 68 user reviews
Great if you like to explore, but too much not available
Pros: Lots of songs, can download for off-line listening
Cons: Too many songs are "buy only"
The idea of a music subscription service really appeals to me because of the way I listen to music. Instead of picking a few favorite songs and listening to them over and over, I listen to hundreds of different songs in any given week. I like to explore rock history and the relationships between artists. Napster makes that possible. For example, let's say I want to listen to an album that influenced a later artist. I may listen to the album once in its entirety and then never listen to it again. That's just not feasible if you're paying by the song. A Napster subscription lets me do that type of "exploratory listening" with no regrets, without breaking the bank, and without breaking the law.
Where Napster falls short, at least to me, is the number of songs that aren't included in the subscription service. So many albums are missing songs, or have one or more songs available for purchase only. It's pretty frustrating to listen to album-oriented rock, where the album was meant to be listened to as a whole instead of as individual songs, and then have song 4 only available as a 30 second preview instead of giving you the whole song. Supposedly this is the artist/label's fault, not Napsters, but that doesn't make it any less annoying to subscribers.
I also find browsing for music a pretty messy experience. You can "browse an artist", which gives you a list of that artist's albums. But the albums are usually listed in the order they were most recently re-released, not the order they were originally released. Getting a meaningful discography is pretty near impossible. And the "related artists" feature is very hit-and-miss, usually giving you a random list of popular artists in the same general genre, not artists that truly have some connection.
And finally, this service is NOT geared toward classical music. I think they may have a good-sized collection of classical music available, but it's painful to find anything.
Overall I think the service is well worth the $10 monthly fee I pay (it's $10 instead of $15 because I only listen to my music on my computers, not on a portable music player). There is a LOT of room for improvement, but I still get $10 worth of enjoyment out of it. I recommend it to anyone who is OK renting music instead of buying it.
out of 68 user reviews
A revolutionary new music experience!
Pros: Works with Creative Zen Micro! (highest rated mp3 player)
Cons: Still working out the kinks of the new portable technology.
out of 68 user reviews
big fan!!!
Pros: great way to find new music
Cons: you have to pay money
out of 68 user reviews
What more could you ask for?
Pros: Best selection of the your choice of tunes.
Cons: So what...if it expires, don't you get tired of the same songs?
out of 68 user reviews
I love the product
Pros: I like having thousands of songs at my fingertip
Cons: Some songs still require you to buy before you can hear them.
I don't know about anyone else, but I listen to so much music that if I had to buy every song, I would end up paying more than $1,000 per month. Like the other day, I wanted to hear some songs from the early Heart collection. I did not know which ones I was going to like, so I just downloaded as many as I could. It cost me $12.95 to do that. I would have had to pay over $50 dollars to do that on iTunes.
I like the service Napster provides, and now with the Napster to go service, I am actually thinking about buying a player. I was not interested in one before.
For me Napster is perfect and I look forward to a long relationship with them. For you iTunes geeks, go back and pay for every song like the Kool-aid drinker you are.
out of 68 user reviews
Service is great and the selection is improving
Pros: Subscription service allows me to listen to complete albums without buying them. The software keeps getting better.
Cons: Some independent labels not in catalog, but selection is still vast.
You pay monthly for cable, ISP, and phone. If you stop service, see how long your service lasts.
Besides you can always buy the songs, and they will be yours even after you leave Napster.
out of 68 user reviews
Still have to buy music????
Pros: Good way to check out music you wouldn't normally buy
Cons: Some music only available for purchase; nasty interface; stop paying and lose all your music
out of 68 user reviews
Great Stuff
Pros: Portable, gives you everything you have ever wanted.
Cons: Not much, but i would like to see more devices
out of 68 user reviews
Stop Paying Lose Your Music
Pros: Download all you want.
Cons: Clunky interface, poor usability.
out of 68 user reviews
are you kidding me. it's a trap!!!
Pros: over a million songs to "rent"
Cons: once you end your subscription when something new and better comes out, and it will, its the nature of technology, you will lose all of the songs that you have on your mp3 device.
out of 68 user reviews
Take your songs with you for Free.. what could be better than that?
Pros: Lots of songs, listen to anything
Cons: I don't have a compatible MP3 player
out of 68 user reviews
So much fun it feels like you're stealing
Pros: Priceless: Never having to pay 99 cents again
Cons: Windows XP only
Too bad it took the recording industry so many years to figure it out.
