01-17-2004, 12:00 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Napster Is Back - And I Think I Like It
http://www.napster.com
Many of us use our PDAs for music and what better place to get music than the internet? Back in the go-go days of 2001, you could download anything you wanted from anywhere for free! Since then though, the granddaddy of them all, Napster, has been shut down and the RIAA is going after people that share large amounts of data. One of the wisest members of this site has been waiting for this day for long time - the chance to download songs for a buck a piece, hassle free. :wink:
Like the Phoenix, Napster has been revived from the ashes, 100% legal and legitimate. Earlier this week, I decided to give Napster a try. Within minutes of installing it, I was overwhelmed at the artists available. All of my favorites aren't there. No Lisa Germano for example, but many are. Everything is $.99 per song or $9.99 per CD downloaded when they have the full CD on the site. Somehow, they manage to leave one song off of "Greatest Hits" CDs meaning you have to buy 15-20 songs at $.99 each to get all they have. :?
Still, they have tons of stuff from the Dexy's Midnight Riders, Depeche Mode, Psychedelic Furs and other staples from what is unquestionably the greatest decade of music the world has ever seen - the 80's!
The timing of this is quite fortuitous for me. I have just bulked up my digital collection with a MiniDV cam, a hoss of a Windows XP Media Center Edition from Gateway and a big screen TV. Now I can go get that perfect track for background music for my home videos or photo stories. :rock on dude!:
My trial was buying the new Sarah McLachlan CD, Afterglow. All 10 tracks downloaded in a DRM protected 128kb WMA format. I think I got ripped off by 9 cents though. I paid $9.99 for the CD and could have paid $9.90 for the songs individually.  ops: Oh well. I immediately burned them to a CD then re-ripped them back in an unprotected format so I could easily transfer them around my home WLAN and Pocket PCs without having to worry about license files. Don't worry Napster. I won't be sharing them. I uninstalled my last file sharing software sometime in late 2001 and have never looked back. I just am not going to fool with trying to get DRM protected music into Windows Movie Maker for home movies. The only problem was when ripping, Windows Media Player 9 only saw 10 untitled tracks. I had to manually tell it this was Afterglow and it promptly named all of the songs and downloaded the album art. :way to go: Everything is now in a VBR WMA format ranging from 49kbps to 65kbps and sounds quite nice in a cranked up 5.1 surround sound equipped system. I can hear it perfectly, and my neighbors can feel it just fine. :lol:
For now, I'm not going to fool with Napster Radio, a $10 per month service to listen to whatever you want, even though Windows XP Media Center Edition (is Microsoft not the most verbose company you've dealt with?) has Napster Radio integrated into the Media Center interface. Maybe later. For now, I've "got the beat" and see a special VH-1 collection of the Go-Go's greatest hits that is beckoning me.
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01-17-2004, 12:07 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,766
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Thats great - whats the selection of newer songs? Any new good pop/rock songs?
Playing music on our 7.1 Pioneer Elite THX NHT system is bliss 
-Justin.
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01-17-2004, 12:09 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 116
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I played around with the new Napster when they first released it. However, I really do prefer Apple's iTunes -- music offerings/prices seem to be about the same, but the iTunes application just seems like an all-around better tool.
I guess the big drawback to iTunes is that you cannot use the WMA file format, and all downloads come in the AAC format. Not a big deal for me since I don't really do the MP3 thing, and if I decide to down the road, I'll probably get an iPod anyway...
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01-17-2004, 12:25 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 17
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after recently trying both itunes and napster I felt more comfortable using itunes. It has a better ui and (atleast for what I was looking for) a better selection. however emusic has them both beat in terms of price and rights but not in selection of mainstream (read: riaa) labels
This being said, I still cant get away from the 'try before you buy' way of thinking.. If I like something I have no problem buying the cd and getting the extras that come with it (a spiffy see though case, some artwork and sometimes lyrics)
my ideal online music store would be a combination of itunes and cduniverse. I buy the music online, download and listen to it while they send me the cd. 
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01-17-2004, 12:26 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 631
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You know, I'm the "REAL" Napster. My dormmate stole the idea from me.
Anyway.....
Napster is not yet available in Mac format. What's with that? :evil: At least iTunes has a Windoz version. And they have a HUGE collection. Maybe you can find your missing "best of" tracks there. 
Just venting.
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01-17-2004, 12:41 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 98
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For those Canucks out there, I just found out about a company in Canada - www.puretracks.com - that offers songs for $0.99 CANADIAN and albums for 9.99 CANADIAN. It's nice that even with the low US dollar, we now have the same pricing as our friends to the south.
I can't comment on their selection of artists and music - haven't browsed enough, and my tastes are fairly eclectic (although they do have more of my stuff - Spyro Gyra, Incognito, etc. than I had expected). However, I can say this - all their songs are 192Kbps WMA 9! I read this was the best-quality music you could download from *anyone's* site. Can't confirm this, but that's a great way to encode if you care about quality.
I wondered about the ability to burn to CD, then re-rip to avoid license issues (I don't need to share either, but I see myself going through lots of devices and computers in the course of my life). Glad to see it works for you, Ed.
-Bryan
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01-17-2004, 12:46 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 740
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Re: Napster Is Back - And I Think I Like It
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
I immediately burned them to a CD then re-ripped them back in an unprotected format so I could easily transfer them around my home WLAN and Pocket PCs without having to worry about license files.
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How did this work for you? Did you bump into problems ripping the content on the same computer that burned the CD?
This is the biggest concern I have and why I haven't used any of the new download services/ stores. Like you I WON'T go sharing the music around; and really didn't do the Napster thing when it was popular back in 2000. I just don't need or want that kind of headache, and living in Nashville like you and I do, Ed, we have lots of musicians around who give every music sharer dirty looks. I don't need ANY of that either. :roll:
If I can burn CD's with the files that I purchase and then immediately turn around and rerip the CD into a VBR WMA and play them on my Pocket PC's and (hopefully, in the near future) a WMA compatible iPOD, (if you haven't read Paul Thurrott's WinInfo today, then you need to jump over to the WinInfo HP-iPOD Article and give it a read. Its a good opinion piece) then I'm all about that! I don't have any problem paying for music, and would love to have a larger collection. The reason I don't is because of the hassle involved in getting off my @ss and getting to the store, or the worry of the RIAA suing me and the rest of the world for playing digital music... :roll:
Anywho, if this works without any problem, I may just have to give this a shot. Please let me know in a post here, or via private message or e-mail if you reripped this on the same 'puter that burned the CD.
Thanks!
Kind Regards,
Christopher Spera
__________________
Kind Regards,
Christopher Spera
Gear Diary Review Team
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01-17-2004, 12:46 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 18
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BTW, that "Napster Radio" in Win MCE is actually a full version of napster. You can surch, buy, download songs, listen to napster radio, etc. The only thing u can't do is create new playlists...but it's a cool interface to allow guests to search for there favorite music using a remote control. I love it!
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01-17-2004, 12:47 AM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by JackTheTripper
You know, I'm the "REAL" Napster. My dormmate stole the idea from me.
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:rotfl: IMHO, he was the best part of that movie. I like how they had Fanning stealing the disk while he was "napping"... :mrgreen:
Back on topic, I think it's cool and all that Napster is back, but I'll stick with iTunes. Same prices, better UI, and the same steps to get non-DRM music...
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01-17-2004, 12:58 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Chris - no problems downloading/burning/ripping on the same PC. I set Napster to download to a folder outside of WMP9's My Music folder. Once I had reripped it, it was now in WMP 2 times - the download and the ripped folder. I then manually deleted the downloaded files from WMP's library but told it to leave the files on my PC.
So far, so good.
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