My Napster Trial - Not So Impressed Any More...

[Jason Dunn]

I've been using Napster for a couple of weeks now and while I like several aspects of it, the more I use it the more frustrated I am with it. I was at a record store this week and saw the new Seether album. I like the song "Broken" by Seether and Amy Lee. I didn't buy the album at the store, because hey, I'm already paying for a monthly Napster subscription, so I don't need to buy CDs any more, right? I should have known better. :roll: I tried searching for Seether, and <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/seether-search.jpg">this is what Napster returned as search results instead.</a> Do you see Seether in there? Nope. I tried searching for the soundtrack for The Punisher, and they didn't have that either. Amy Lee? No results.<br /><br />Last night I went to see Sarah McLachlan play last night, and there was an opening act named Butterfly Boucher. It's not shocking that a relatively unknown act isn't up on Napster, but it underscores the point that Napster isn't yet a comprehensive music service. What is shocking though is that they only had two partial Sarah McLachlan albums. If a music service doesn't have the music you want to listen to, how useful can it really be?<br /><br />There's also the irritating fact that not all of the Napster catalog is available to me as a subscriber - quite often I'll click the "Download Album" option and I'll get a warning window telling me that not all tracks on that album are available for download, I need to purchase them if I want to listen. And forget about even being able to buy a whole album - quite frequently I'll see an "album" being offered, and it's missing tracks! I'm looking at a Sarah McLachlan album right now and they only have tracks 1, 5, 6, and 10 for download or purchase.<br /><br />Lastly, the Napster plugin for WMP10 seems a bit flaky - it often locks up WMP10 for several seconds and while my music keeps playing, I can't switch screens. If you're a Napster subscriber, tell me what you think of the service - am I missing something, or have you grown accustomed to the glitches I've brought up?

[James Fee]

Sarah McLachlan has a ton of iTunes "exclusives"...

[Jason Dunn]

Sarah McLachlan has a ton of iTunes "exclusives"...

Ah, interesting. In the real world, if a music store didn't have all of the same music as another music store, that music store wouldn't stay in business long. I think a few music stores are going to implode...

[bdegroodt]

Sarah McLachlan has a ton of iTunes "exclusives"...
That brings up an interesting point about the "backroom" negotiations with the artists and these music stores. I'm certain there are many different exlcusive/non-exclusive, higher payout/lower payout stipulations in order to bring an artist's catalog to one service over another. I'd hate to see the music stores go the way of the big labels, and would rather think that this works out for artist, store, and consumer in a balanced manner.

On the Napster front, the last thing I ever got from Napster was a t-shirt before they went to bed for a while. I'm an iTunes guy. Sorry Jason. And...oddly, while I don't steal any music anymore, and I do buy a fair number of albums off iTunes, I've purchased more actual CDs in the last 9 months of this year than I had for the last 3 years.

[James Fee]

True, but its all part of Steve Job's plan. Its these exclusives that will keep people on iTunes....

[Neil Enns]

My Napster install in WMP10 is totally screwed up. Every time I run Windows Media Player it tries to install the new Napster plug-in, but fails in a miserable un-ending loop of Windows Installer windows that pop up, appear, and then go away. ARRRRRGH. I've tried everything short of uninstalling WMP10 to fix it.

Regarding song selections I find it incredibly frustrating. Many songs (Hilary Duff's "fly", Kelly Clarkson's "Breakway") are simply unavailable anywhere but iTunes. It pisses me off :(

Speaking of Butterfly Bouche, if you had XM Radio Jason, you'd have heard her many times already :P

Neil

[Mojo Jojo]

Itunes has a whole CD and two extra tracks for Butterfly Boucher... (rubs salt)

[James Fee]

Itunes has a whole CD and two extra tracks for Butterfly Boucher... (rubs salt)
Well even if he wanted, I don't think there is an itunes canada yet...

[backpackerx]

which music formats can you buy from iTunes? Is it just Mp3 and AAC?

[James Fee]

which music formats can you buy from iTunes? Is it just Mp3 and AAC?
just AAC with the Fairplay DRM...

[ctmagnus]

OT:

Jason, can you remember the set list by any chance?

And the concert wasn't last night, it was Wednesday night ;)

[backpackerx]

which music formats can you buy from iTunes? Is it just Mp3 and AAC?
just AAC with the Fairplay DRM...

So the only people who can use iTunes are those with an iPod or who play music on the computer with iTunes? Why don't they sell Mp3? Seems like they could sell so many more songs.

[James Fee]

So the only people who can use iTunes are those with an iPod or who play music on the computer with iTunes? Why don't they sell Mp3? Seems like they could sell so many more songs.
No one sells mp3 anymore (well no large stores). Apple uses iTunes for selling iPods and to be honest, doesn't care about others.

Nothing is stopping you from downloading and burining to a CD then rip into MP3 as many do.

[Mojo Jojo]

Darn Canucks :wink: Just don't tell my wife I said that.

I do wish negotiations with local agencies and Apple would hurry up. It's not like they have to convert the language, eh?

[Jason Dunn]

My Napster install in WMP10 is totally screwed up. Every time I run Windows Media Player it tries to install the new Napster plug-in...

I had exactly the same problem - what you need to do is install the newer version over the other version, but that's impossible to do with the way they've set it up. I'll IM you and transfer the installer directly to you...

Speaking of Butterfly Bouche, if you had XM Radio Jason, you'd have heard her many times already :P

Yeah, but working from home, I really have no use for XM radio. :-)

[Jason Dunn]

Itunes has a whole CD and two extra tracks for Butterfly Boucher... (rubs salt)

If iTunes were available in Canada, that might be a possibility, but it's not, so all you've done is piss me off further. :x :lol:

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, can you remember the set list by any chance?

No, I don't have a memory that works like that. :-)

And the concert wasn't last night, it was Wednesday night ;)

Yeah, the post was supposed to go live yesterday, but I put the wrong year on it, so it didn't.

[Jason Dunn]

So the only people who can use iTunes are those with an iPod or who play music on the computer with iTunes?

Yup.

Why don't they sell Mp3? Seems like they could sell so many more songs.

MP3 in it's historical form has no DRM, hence people could trade them back and forth. There's a newer form of MP3 that will have DRM, but I think it's time has passed...WMA and AAC rule the online music world now.

[Jason Dunn]

I do wish negotiations with local agencies and Apple would hurry up. It's not like they have to convert the language, eh?

I bet it has a lot to do with the number of iPods sold in Canada, or the lack thereof. That's the problem with the iTunes business model - they only care about people with iPods, and that's not me.

[backpackerx]

That's the problem with the iTunes business model - they only care about people with iPods, and that's not me.

Bastards......... :)

[Mojo Jojo]

...and that's not me.

The force is strong in this one, he will be turned however... once we cut off his hand! :P

[Montego]

Rhapsody has 8 Sarah McLachlan albums and one Butterfly Bouche, all tracks burnable.

Sony Connect has the same thing.

Jason, you may want to check out Rhapsody if they have it in Canada. it is $25.00 a quarter plus .79 cents per burn. I haven't actually burned any tracks as I use Rhapsody to stream music to my Netgear MP101 Internet Music box to play through my stereo. For me, that is the nice thing about Rhapsody, you can stream anything from their catalog at no extra cost, and you can even setup your own custom "radio stations" with artists you pick.

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, you may want to check out Rhapsody if they have it in Canada.

13. Is RHAPSODY available outside the U.S.?
No. Due to licensing restrictions, RHAPSODY is available to U.S. residents only. We are working on expanding our subscription service outside of the U.S.

&lt;sigh>

:cry: