Player Blog Category Archives: Content
February 03, 2005
Napster To Go Launches
Online music store Napster launched its Napster To Go service today in the US, Canada and the UK which allows members to download an unlimited number of songs per month onto both desktop PCs and compatible MP3 players. The service costs $14.95 per month and is the first to use Microsoft's WMA-10 digital rights management (DRM) technology, also known under the label Plays for Sure.
Napster to Go isn't like other music stores such as Apple's iTunes Music Store, which charges $0.99 per track but lets you use the song perpetually. Rather, Napster to Go doesn't charge per track, but you can only listen to the music while you continue to pay the monthly subscription fee.
Also, since the service uses a brand new technology, only a few, select devices are currently supported: iRiver H10, Creative Zen Micro, Gateway Photo Jukebox, iRiver H320 and a few others.
Presumably iRiver, Creative and Rio are working to update their older devices to be compatible as well.
Don't look for the iPod to join list, though. Apple has its own store and iPod devices are the only ones allowed to use it. Generally, every other MP3 player vendor has lined up behind Microsoft to use their song protection technology.
More bits at Tech Digest UK, Yahoo! News and Engadget.
Read the fine print before anyone gets excited, folks:
"*It is necessary to maintain a Napster subscription in order to continue access to songs downloaded through the Napster service."
Posted by: Steve at February 6, 2005 08:59 PMYes, but Napster is nice as it offers you 3 models:
1. Light - allows you to pay-per-download in the same way as ITunes
2. Subscription - lets you play all the music you want on up to 3 computers, but you must purchase to download.
3. To-Go - let's you play all the subscription music you want on your portable players + 3 computers.
Honestly I think that Napster should cut out #2 and leave only the "To-Go" and "Light" models - but I guess they'll run their financials and find out.
I didn't have a portable player until recent so I used my Laptops, so the #2 option worked out great for m.e
Posted by: Vito at February 8, 2005 11:38 AMIf anyone is interested there is a way of converting the protected wma files downloaded from napster to a normal mp3 file. Meaning by donwloading all the unlimited free music you get as part of the $10 a month subscription. Also meaning you never have to pay a per song price to be able to burn it to a cd as well and this method is ipod friendly. Once you convert the protected wma to mp3 by removing the drm you could donwload and convert pretty much any amount of music you could ever want and only pay $10 bucks a month to do so. Hope this helps out.
Posted by: free music freak at January 3, 2006 04:02 AMIf anyone is interested there is a way of converting the protected wma files downloaded from napster to a normal mp3 file. Meaning by donwloading all the unlimited free music you get as part of the $10 a month subscription. Also meaning you never have to pay a per song price to be able to burn it to a cd as well and this method is ipod friendly. Once you convert the protected wma to mp3 by removing the drm you could donwload and convert pretty much any amount of music you could ever want and only pay $10 bucks a month to do so. Hope this helps out.
Posted by: free music freak at January 3, 2006 04:03 AMwhen it comes to removing DRM from your online music such as napster. Then your best software is musicstacker.
Checkit out at www.musicstacker.com