How can I get my Napster songs to my Ipod?

[amheck]

I got an Ipod for Father's Day and just signed up for the free trial for Napster. Only to find out that apparently Napster and the Ipod don't work together. Has anyone found a way to be able to trasfer the songs from Napster to an Ipod?

 

[TheoPetro]

can you go from napster > CD > iTunes > iPod

or move the files from the napster file to another file then import them to iTunes???

 

[cryptonomicon]

ugh dont tell me napster has DRM on their files

 

[pulsedrive]

Yes, Napster uses DRM. The only devices you can put napster music on without first buying it and burning to CD and then ripping back to MP3 are napster dveices, such as the samsung 20GB player.

 

[amheck]

Yep, they sure do. This service is very wacky. I just started downloading last nite.

Apparently, yes, all of the files you download have DRM. iTunes will not let you import them. I think to burn to a CD, you have to "buy" the track for .99
Also of note, the tracks you download for free (well, while under the free trial and then $10-$15 a month plans) will expire once you let your service expire. I must have downloaded 9-10 full albums last nite. But I can't move them to my iPod (which Napster To Go says you can move to mobile devices - they just don't tell you no Ipod) and I can't burn them and I guess they expire once I don't renew the monthly free.

Not too sure I dig this service.

 

[0roo0roo]

its rental model yea. not itunes..it blows

 

[rcomo]

I had this same issue with my iriver, so its just not ipod that napster locks out. napster sucks imho; and I would like to point out that when I downloaded from them, I bought the tracks outright (99cents per) and STILL couldnt use them on my iriver. napster will never get my money again, lesson learned.

 

[Mark R]

Yeah, the Napster service is utterly useless.

As far as I can tell the rental model only allows you to play your 'rented' files in media player and a (very) few selected portable players. I tried a couple of weeks ago; winamp and a couple of other media players wouldn't touch the napster files.

If you want do do anything with your files (e.g. burn to CD, convert to another format) then you need to buy that track (.99 each). Even then, I've found that many programs choke - e.g. Nero would burn OK, but if you want to do advanced mixing the audio editor would tend to hang. I think, but didn't verify, that even after you've bought a track you only get a limited number of burns or conversions before the file locks down completely - I may be wrong on this.

In short, the monthly fee seems very steep for what you actually get from it. If their files were more useful, then I could cope with buying tracks individually (like iTunes), but not in their current format.

My free trial lasted about 48 hours, before I decided it was useless. I terminated even more quickly than I was going to because my credit card company actually rang me up to question the charge placed on my card, when I signed up for the free trial. Yup - Napster charged my card when I signed up (at least, that's what my bank told me), although I have now got the statement, and it appears the charge was cancelled.

 

[imported_ArtVandalay]

Ugh, DRM sucks Any online services *not* have it? Aside from that ubiquitous Russian one.

 

[Pabster]

Yeah, but do you think the RIAA would allow it any other way? Imagine the rash of heart attacks if a headline such as "iTunes to start selling DRM-free tunes" were to cross the wires

 

[w00t]

use iTunes.

 

[JDCentral]

Buy the CDs... no DRM there!

And much higher quality audio.

 

[QurazyQuisp]

Get a program called Tunebite, it converts them from protected WMA to MP3! It does it in real time, and you can't have your computer make any noise so it's kind of a hassle.

 

[Pete Broughton]

u cud always go "illegal" lol

 

[TheoPetro]

what stops you from convirting it to mp3 then burn to cd then put back on comp and open w/ another player? i dont understand the drm thing i guess. is it something throughout the whole file or is it removeable

 

[Mark R]

what stops you from convirting it to mp3 then burn to cd then put back on comp and open w/ another player?

You have to 'buy' the track first.

If you've just downloaded it as a 'rental' - it will only play on Media player - nothing else will be able to open it. Winamp won't touch it, lame won't touch it, etc. You won't be able to burn it, because the burning program won't be able to access the file.

Once you've bought it, you will be able to burn it, or convert it with certain programs.

However, the whole point of the Napster business model, is that people pay a monthly subscription to 'rent' tracks which can be transferred onto their personal player, without having to buy a full licence for each track. E.g. the marketing literature has said that it would cost about $10,000 to fill an ipod with downloaded music. Yet with Napster, you could have a full personal player for just 14.99 a month.

The problem is that there are very few media players with napster support - and several of them don't work properly (e.g. Iriver H10)

 

[mark4311]

I am not sure about the quality at the end of the process (good chance it'll be just 'passible') but you can try something like TotalRecorder program that will record signal coming to your sound card. And then all the conversions and so on.