Napster returns to free, limited music

[TetsuoShima]

In a bid to bolster the image of its music subscription service and lure new subscribers, Napster is returning to the days of yore by offering free music. But as you might expect, there's a catch. Rather than offering free downloadable music, Napster is taking a page from RealNetwork's playbook and offering free streaming music to users in an attempt to entice them. With Napster's offering, users can listen to streaming music from any of Napster's two million tracks, with one caveat: no single track can be played more than five times (tracked via mandatory user registration).

 

The free web-based offering utilizes Flash, presenting the user with a basic player application, a window for album art, and another for advertising. It works for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux users, and does not require the installation of any particular player software (other than the aforementioned Flash). The music streamed is of lower-quality than their commercial tracks, and our subjective tests indicate that the quality is also less than that offered by Rhapsody's "competing" free service.

 

When Rhapsody made this move almost a year ago to the day, it was clear that they were attempting to lure users to their services by giving them a reason to check out their offerings. Napster's plans are in the same vein, but there are some other notable differences besides quality. Napster's offering, for instance, appears to be designed primarily for sharing links to Napster songs. In Napster's ideal scenario, users all over the web will choose to link directly to Napster tunes which could then be heard by anyone with an account, for free. Want to share a song with a buddy? Napster hopes you'll think of them.

[Amnot Borg]

BUT, what happens when people start recording the streaming music and sort it for mp3-worthy material? It was free but now they'd have mp3s of music that someone will get P.O.ed about.

 

I guess they are hoping people will not go to the trouble of recording it and doing the necessary work to create mp3s.

 

Wishful thinking.