Napster provides unlimited access to over 1.5 million songs online through their subscription service. Pay a monthly fee, and you can listen to all the songs you want, and “with Napster to Go, you can?fill and refill any compatible MP3 player with music without paying per song or album* “.
So it sounds like you can load up your iPod-like device with all the songs it can hold and listen to them all your want.? Well, not exactly, according to the foonote.
*MOUSE PRINT: “It is necessary to maintain a Napster subscription in order to continue access to songs downloaded through the Napster service.” [Website, March 23, 2006]
Translation: Unlike an audio tape onto which you have recorded music which can be played over and over forever, music transferred to smart electronic devices can in essence self-destruct if you do not continuing paying your monthly subscription fee. Â The technology is called digital rights management.
To Napster’s credit, they disclose this limitation right on their homepage. Other music subscription services bury the self-destructing nature of conditional downloads in their terms and conditions in less than clear language, if they disclose it at all.
I agree that this is a bit sneaky. This is a brand new way of getting music so some kinks and expectations need to be worked out. Tech savvy people know this is a rental service. The average joe will get on board pretty quick. But anyone who thinks they can download 3000 CDs in a month and keep them forever for $15 needs their head checked! To me the more deceptive point is that it’s not iPod compatible and that isn’t mentioned until the fine print. And, since iPod owns about 80% of the market, how many owners signed up and then found out they couldn’t use it and were out $15.
Napster isn’t the only one with this kind of practice. Imesh does the same thing.
You pay 7.95 a month for a “premium” membership and then only have access to the
songs as long as you continue to pay for the subscription. If you want to burn
the songs? Well that will cost you the same price as purchasing the CD from
Best Buy, around 15.00 to 25.00 per album. Also, when you first enter their site
all you see is the “download now” button, no mention of having to subscribe. It
allows you to download the program and use it for 30 days before it forces
you to “upgrade” the subscription.
I have experienced many a thirty day limitation period on music files. I gave up Imesh about two weeks after they started the thing and couldn’t be happier. Also I would like to note I have gotten stalled downloads and suddenly-missing files from it too. With all this going on I can really understand how music piracy is so popular.
The problem I had with Napster was that I paid for the subscription, but the overwhelming majority of songs I wanted to listen to were only availible for purchase, not for free listening with a subscription.
It reminded me of the whole Netflix throttling issue – advertising something that you’re not really getting.
This is crazy, deceptive practice leads to consumers trying to figure how to beat their system before it beats them.
Thanks for the information!
Napster is scam!Just recently i have been reminded of some songs on the radio and i thought to myself “Hey i wanna listen to those again, i have those on my gigabeat (mp3 player) and then i go and look and that songs that I bought is removed from my playlist and so i went to check if napster just deleted them and nope! They were still in there data base! Im calling them tomorrow and it wont be pretty! -Nick
Big shocker… this is like being amazed that your access to HBO ends when you stop paying your bill.