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The 'Granddaddy' of them all, Napster comes in first place among the services. Napster provides a seven day free trial, which gives you a chance to explore all the features.
All tracks are 100% legal, so you don't have to worry about the RIAA losing its nut over what you listen to here.
Included with your monthly membership fee is real-time streaming audio, and you can listen to over 50 interactive commercial-free stations like 80s Radio, One-Hit Wonders, Party Anthems and more. The ability to custom create your own radio station puts Napster over the top, in my humble opinion. I liked creating a mixture of 60 & 70's ballads and 90's New Age music into one 'station'.
You can also save an unlimited number of tracks to up to three computers, to listen to without having to download them every time. On a standard DSL connection, the streaming radio was near-CD quality, and while there was a noticeable delay between songs, not once did a song quit halfway thru like with some of the other streaming services. There is also Music News content, reviews, etc. You can preview any track before you buy it, or add it into your custom radio list and listen to it for the base monthly charge. You only pay extra when you 'buy' a track to burn to CD, or to copy to an MP3 player.
New! Napster just released version 3.0, with many new improvements. All music is now streamed at 128K.
The unlimited tracks you downloaded for free you can only keep as long as you are a member. Once you quit your membership, they stop working. You do, however get to keep the ones you paid extra for. Also don't try to use the free trial multiple times. The owners tend to get upset with people doing that.
The software is darn near impossible to get to work thru a proxy server, specifically Proxy Plus. I bought a Linksys router, and got it to work in less than 2 minutes. The old Napster Beta 2.0 had options you could configure for a proxy server, but NapsterLite does not. Removing this functionality was a huge mistake. If you don't use a proxy server, you should be ok.
4 ½ notes. It loses half a point for the proxy server problem. It only took a few minutes to configure the router, but it was still $70 I could have spent on buying tracks instead.
I found some 'exotic' tracks I couldn't find elsewhere, but was disappointed that I couldn't find a few of my favorite 60's and 70's tracks. (Ok, so I'm an old fart.)
$9.95/month + $.80 to $.99 per track; $9.95 per complete album.
Link to sign up or get your free trial: www.Napster.com
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Napster uses a well-built custom browser window.
This is the home page. The menu bars are at the top, and there is a search box at the upper right side of the window. You can search by Artist, Album, Track, Member, or in your personal Library.
There is also a small ad window, featuring several different products, including the multi-song packs.
One favorite of mine on this page is the 'Advance Tracks & Exclusives" section where you can listen to excerpts of albums not yet released for sale.
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Fuzz(TM) - Napster's own magazine. With a very easy to use menu, it contains lots of articles, photos, interviews and more. Fuzz(TM) is updated fairly often.
I especially liked the article about "Swedish Kids In America" - and enjoyed several of their tracks. Not bad considering this old man had never even heard of them before. Fuzz(TM) is a great way to learn of new artists and groups, and to learn more about your favorites as well.
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On the Radio Page you have your choice of over fifty different commercial free radio stations. You can also custom create your own station, mixing the tracks and styles you prefer.
If a song comes up you don't want to listen to, you can skip to the next song or choose any track in the list you want to listen to. You can also rearrange the order songs play in by simply dragging and dropping any track in the list to any position.
I've listened to many on line radio stations, but Napster's is the best. The sound quality is near CD level, and on a DSL connection songs load fairly quickly.
All radio stations are included at no extra charge with your membership. This is my favorite part of Napster.
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The "Message Boards" section allows you to read and post messages about any music related topic, such as questions about Napster, Blues, Alternative music, Napster at different colleges, artists, etc.
Looking for a track you can't find on Napster? Post your question here and someone will likely tell you where to find it.
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The Browse window allows you to look for tracks by Genre and artist. I found tons of comedy material, and spent hours listening to Jeff Foxworthy, Chris Rock, Sinbad, Margaret Cho, and more. I also found, believe it or not, tracks by Andy Griffith and the late Redd Foxx.
You can also check out various Billboard and Napster charts, such as the Billboard 200 Albums, Hot 100 tracks, Hot Country Singles, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Easy Listening, Comedy, and much, much more. You can even see what other members are currently streaming to their computers, and see what collections they have made and shared.
The Browse window is the best way to look for your old favorites as well as songs you've never heard.
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Napster now includes an 'inbox' where you can receive music suggestions from other members as well as the Napster staff. With this feature, you can also select an album, playlist or specific track or tracks, click on the 'Send to friend' button, and they will be able to listen to the same tracks as well.
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Napster is actually one of the more expensive services up front, but you get so much more for your money it's worth it. I actually installed the service on two machines, and as long as I was only logged into the Napster service on one machine at a time, it worked fine. I never tried logging into both machines at the same time so I don't know if that would work or not. Hopefully someone braver than I will try it and let me know the answer.
Sign up here: www.Napster.com
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