hacking napster

[mdchesne]

not recommending it because this is not the place, but anyone know if that hack is still operational? I've been on my iBook for the past month and haven't been bale to test it yet.
napster-->winamp-->.wav

 

[n0cmonkey]

What hack? Explain.

 

[mdchesne]

you sign up for the 14-day free trial for napster (now you have to pay the month $20 fee, but ther eis a 14-day free trial). Napster is being a whore about their music in a sneaky, in-the-fine-print sort of way by 'protecting' their music. ALL the music you download from napster will disappear from your computer if you stop paying the monthly fee. UNLESS you use this hack i found.

Install winamp if you don't have it already. download the winamp plugin "output stacker"
Open Winamp Options->Plug-ins->Output->Dietmar's Output Stacker->Configure
a. Add out_ds.dll from Winamp/Plug-ins folder
b. Add out_disk.dll from Winamp/Plug-ins folder
c. Select out_disk.dll in the Output Stacker->Configure
d. Set the output directory and output file mode to Force WAV file
e. Exit preferences
load downloaded napster protected WMAs into your winamp playlist
press play and each file will be converted to a .wav as it plays
burn .wavs to CD

No need to pay anything affter trial expires because in 14 days, you could have downloaded approx. 2-3 gigs of free music, premanently

 

[Nohr]

I've heard that music gotten from Rhapsody also 'disappears' shortly after unsubscribing.

 

[mdchesne]

it's a cheap way of saying "you can download infinate amount of music for only $20 per month" ...and then under their breath "but you can't keep it"


I looked into napster and how they could only charge that little bit after that mac-bashing commercial "do the math". good thing too

 

[DannyLove]

ppl still use napster? lol so much other methods in getting mp3s, its not even funny! Why bother

 

[mdchesne]

noone really does, it's just still alive out there. i myself use limewire and kazaa lite ++

 

[n0cmonkey]

That's not a hack, it's fair use.

 

[mdchesne]

 

[Malak]

I'm glad I read this thread. Now I know to never use any of those services. Not like I ever would anyway, since they never have any music I want. But in case they ever did, now I know.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

1/8" loopback cable.

Unamplified output -> line-in -> record.

Edit - and IIRC, Napster offers only 128kbit WMA. Which isn't worth pirating, let alone paying for.

- M4H

 

[sparkyclarky]

nothing new, what you're doing is illegal (not that I care, but don't try to justify it)
And that hack is neither glamorous, nor time effective (real time encoding isn't exactly a great solution).

 

[n7]

The whole point of that hack was to prove that those who want free music...well, they will never be stopped...

As for whether it's worth it or not...hell no.

 

[whistleclient]

Originally posted by: mdchesne
you sign up for the 14-day free trial for napster (now you have to pay the month $20 fee, but ther eis a 14-day free trial). Napster is being a whore about their music in a sneaky, in-the-fine-print sort of way by 'protecting' their music. ALL the music you download from napster will disappear from your computer if you stop paying the monthly fee. UNLESS you use this hack i found.

Install winamp if you don't have it already. download the winamp plugin "output stacker"
Open Winamp Options->Plug-ins->Output->Dietmar's Output Stacker->Configure
a. Add out_ds.dll from Winamp/Plug-ins folder
b. Add out_disk.dll from Winamp/Plug-ins folder
c. Select out_disk.dll in the Output Stacker->Configure
d. Set the output directory and output file mode to Force WAV file
e. Exit preferences
load downloaded napster protected WMAs into your winamp playlist
press play and each file will be converted to a .wav as it plays
burn .wavs to CD

No need to pay anything affter trial expires because in 14 days, you could have downloaded approx. 2-3 gigs of free music, premanently

i didn't think they were being sneaky about it. it's pretty obvious that with itunes you're purchasing the songs, with napster you're renting them.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: tangent1138

Originally posted by: mdchesne
you sign up for the 14-day free trial for napster (now you have to pay the month $20 fee, but ther eis a 14-day free trial). Napster is being a whore about their music in a sneaky, in-the-fine-print sort of way by 'protecting' their music. ALL the music you download from napster will disappear from your computer if you stop paying the monthly fee. UNLESS you use this hack i found.

Install winamp if you don't have it already. download the winamp plugin "output stacker"
Open Winamp Options->Plug-ins->Output->Dietmar's Output Stacker->Configure
a. Add out_ds.dll from Winamp/Plug-ins folder
b. Add out_disk.dll from Winamp/Plug-ins folder
c. Select out_disk.dll in the Output Stacker->Configure
d. Set the output directory and output file mode to Force WAV file
e. Exit preferences
load downloaded napster protected WMAs into your winamp playlist
press play and each file will be converted to a .wav as it plays
burn .wavs to CD

No need to pay anything affter trial expires because in 14 days, you could have downloaded approx. 2-3 gigs of free music, premanently

i didn't think they were being sneaky about it. it's pretty obvious that with itunes you're purchasing the songs, with napster you're renting them.

Yeah, there's nothing sneaky about it at all. The only thing sneaky about anything is how the online stores misrepresent the quality of their music to the consumer. It is far from CD quality, something which is unacceptable given the prices they charge. It should be lossless and nothing else for 99 cents/song.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: mdchesne
Napster is being a whore about their music in a sneaky, in-the-fine-print sort of way by 'protecting' their music. ALL the music you download from napster will disappear from your computer if you stop paying the monthly fee.

And they wonder why piracy is a problem...

 

[mdchesne]

HOWEVER, if you wanted decent music files like from CDs, you'd be downloading 60mb instead of 3.5mb files. Unless you're a pirating audiophile, the difference between CD and mp3-quality songs isn't that much (no tests to back it up, just my opinion from listening to the two). I'd rather be downloading 20, 3.5mb mp3s than 1, 60mb CD file on a p2p network

but my question still stands: is this still do-able or has napster caught on?

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: Gurck

Originally posted by: mdchesne
Napster is being a whore about their music in a sneaky, in-the-fine-print sort of way by 'protecting' their music. ALL the music you download from napster will disappear from your computer if you stop paying the monthly fee.

And they wonder why piracy is a problem...

It's not a problem for me.
Torrents all the way.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: mdchesne
HOWEVER, if you wanted decent music files like from CDs, you'd be downloading 60mb instead of 3.5mb files. Unless you're a pirating audiophile, the difference between CD and mp3-quality songs isn't that much (no tests to back it up, just my opinion from listening to the two). I'd rather be downloading 20, 3.5mb mp3s than 1, 60mb CD file on a p2p network

but my question still stands: is this still do-able or has napster caught on?

Even on my equipment, which is far from grand (an Onkyo HTS-650 setup, a pair of Sennheiser HD 265s, and a pair of Shure E3cs), I can easily tell the difference between a 128 bitrate mp3/aac track and a 192 bitrate track of the same song. I often spot artifacts in 192 songs also. And going lossless gives the peace of mind that I'm not unnecessarily degrading song quality, and that I can transcode easily with no loss in quality incurred. If you're going to pay for music, why pay the same ammount for lesser quality (save the few instances where you need a single quickly)? This doesn't even factor in the problems of a digital medium/the ease of which one can lose a track through accidental deletion or through hardware failure. If you don't keep a rigid backup routine, you could be out your tunes. Vs. going with CDs where it's much less likely that you'll completely lose your music (yes, loss of CDs/CD damage can occur, but I'd say that's less likely and more easy to prevent than damage of data stored on a hard drive).

 

[BW86]

This would be a great idea if every song wasnt in 128kbps WMA's

 

[mhillary]

didn't knew it could be hacked

 

[MrBond]

Napster is being a whore about their music in a sneaky, in-the-fine-print sort of way by 'protecting' their music. ALL the music you download from napster will disappear from your computer if you stop paying the monthly fee.

Not to mention when I signed up for the free trial, 90% of the music I wanted to download wasn't included in the "all you can download" thing. The recent Dave Matthews album? "Buy for $9.99" only. I saw the same thing with many other artists/albums.

Also, isn't 128kbs WMA roughly equal to a 256kbs MP3? WMA compression used to be twice as good as CBR MP3, but that was when it first came out. I havent' followed it since

 

[cmp1223]

yeah, can anyone esle comment on quality? Virgin digital states their songs are

"They are encoded in Windows Media format using version 9. All files are use what is called "dual-pass" encoding, which makes them sound far superior to equivalent files at the same bitrate encoded with only a single pass. Songs purchased or downloaded from Virgin Digital are delivered at 128k. Virgin Digital Music Club content streams at 128k dual-pass as well, if your bandwidth can handle it."

is this dual pass really better? What about when converted to mp3?