Napster:Round 2:FIGHT! New Pricing structure allows unlimited donwloads for a $14.99/mth

[Goosemaster]

enjoy



Apple is going the $0.99 / song route. Napter lost that battle....for now.

Don't say they weren't determined. In a twist they have totally reworked the way they sell music.

For a monthly subscription, you can put all THE MUSIC THAT WILL FIT ON YOUR PLAYER for just the monthly $14.99 fee. That means you can download 5GB, mix, mathc, and edit like mad whenever you want.

There is a catch....err, a 2 part catch.

1. The files will only be on your Player and will only work as long as you are paying for your subscription.

2. The encryption based on Microsoft's Janus will make songs obsolete automatically. The player must be connected periodically to the PC to continue playing the tracks. After the subscription ends or the player is kept away for awhile, it is deactivated. That said, it seems to be a web-based service so you could probably "check in" so to speak at any PC.


Currently, if you singup for a year of service at $14.99, you get an Iriver H10 for free. You can also buy aCreative Micro or a Gateway player and you get 3 months of service for free (no where near as hot I guess).




I must admit. I find this to be a a very interesting idea. It will definitely appeal to quite a few people. Perhaps this is the future of digital audio where it is all based on a service structure rather than a property structure. WHo knows.

Check it out and get back to me


<--Has an Ipod...passing this along because he doesn't care what you have as long as you can enjoy your tunes
<---Agrees with anyone who says that radio sucks besides NPR.

EDIT: free player deal is dead

 

[zainali]

got it when it was posted on fw. imo its a great deal for a year of legal music.

 

[gwag]

I for one would rather buy music than rent it. maybe good if you like tons of music but I dont want to pay napster 170$ a year to listen to it, and I really hope this model does't fly it will only encorage MS and others to do it also do you want a DRM on software or your OS?

 

[Nick5324]

Originally posted by: gwag
I for one would rather buy music than rent it. maybe good if you like tons of music but I dont want to pay napster 170$ a year to listen to it, and I really hope this model does't fly it will only encorage MS and others to do it also do you want a DRM on software or your OS?

I'd also rather buy than rent. This is why i've never paid for napster, itunes, etc. I'm not interested in paying for it, then not being able to do whatever i want with it (note: this does not include selling it illegally) and for as long as i want. Wouldn't it be strange if you went to CC and bought a CD, and you had to tell them which stereo you were going to use, and only that one will play it. Then the repo man came in XX months and took the CD back.

 

[kamranziadar]

not bad

 

[bobfloyd]

Just ordered it. It's an incredibly good deal on the Iriver H10 ($100 off discount price), which has a color display for jpegs, 5G, FM, etc.. The year of Napster (which I'll almost certainly cancel at the end) is just an added bonus.

Note that the Napster service only works with Windows XP and Windows Media Player 10 which is a pretty rotten piece of software and uses offensive encryption, though I doubt if a speaker driver tool like TotalRecorder would be affected.

 

[dteague]

DEAD

 

[Drakkon]

Originally posted by: dteague
DEAD

nevermind...it is dead...i got in at the last seconds i guess

 

[tren001]

As for Napster's subscription system:

Napster secure wma file + tunebite (or similar recording software) = DRM semi-workaround

This way you get to keep all those songs after the subscription.

 

[Zim]

Originally posted by: tren001
As for Napster's subscription system:

Napster secure wma file + tunebite (or similar recording software) = DRM semi-workaround

This way you get to keep all those songs after the subscription.

THIS can transcode protected WMA to MP3. It can transcode in bulk, digitally, and at high speed using the LAME codec.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Zim

Originally posted by: tren001
As for Napster's subscription system:

Napster secure wma file + tunebite (or similar recording software) = DRM semi-workaround

This way you get to keep all those songs after the subscription.

THIS can transcode protected WMA to MP3. It can transcode in bulk, digitally, and at high speed using the LAME codec.

explain more?
I can download protected wma's from napster and not have to deal with proprietary software?

 

[Samus]

someone should also mention that janus is easily cracked and converted to non-encrypted WMA or MP3.

ohh. they did. n/m.

 

[Wedge1]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
<---Agrees with anyone who says that radio sucks besides NPR.

Agreed

 

[KenSimone]

THIS (quintessential) can transcode protected WMA to MP3. It can transcode in bulk, digitally, and at high speed using the LAME codec.

I can't seem to get batch to work. It converts the first few tracks, then either locks up, or stops. Any tricks to getting it to work correctly? Thanks.

 

[AnyMal]

Originally posted by: KenSimone

THIS (quintessential) can transcode protected WMA to MP3. It can transcode in bulk, digitally, and at high speed using the LAME codec.

I can't seem to get batch to work. It converts the first few tracks, then either locks up, or stops. Any tricks to getting it to work correctly? Thanks.

Does transconding require a plugin or is it built in to Quintessential?

 

[tcrosson]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
enjoy

There is a catch....err, a 2 part catch.

1. The files will only be on your Player and will only work as long as you are paying for your subscription.

2. The encryption based on Microsoft's Janus will make songs obsolete automatically. The player must be connected periodically to the PC to continue playing the tracks. After the subscription ends or the player is kept away for awhile, it is deactivated. That said, it seems to be a web-based service so you could probably "check in" so to speak at any PC.

So lets say my songs expire, can I just log back into napster and download them again? Also, if you go the Napter-to-go route, can you play the things back on your PC or burn them to a CD?

 

[emeraldsky]

Originally posted by: Zim
THIS can transcode protected WMA to MP3. It can transcode in bulk, digitally, and at high speed using the LAME codec.

Thanks for this tip.
Man I really love free software - like Firebird, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Linux, etc. This stuff is taking the world in the right direction.

 

[tren001]

Originally posted by: KenSimone

THIS (quintessential) can transcode protected WMA to MP3. It can transcode in bulk, digitally, and at high speed using the LAME codec.

I can't seem to get batch to work. It converts the first few tracks, then either locks up, or stops. Any tricks to getting it to work correctly? Thanks.

I'm also giving this software a try, but encoding seems anything but "high speed". So far it has taken ~20 minutes to convert one 3 minute song! Am I missing something here? Also, does anyone know what kind of encoding/converting is going on? Is it all digital, or digital to analog to digital?

 

[TekDemon]

Originally posted by: Zim

Originally posted by: tren001
As for Napster's subscription system:

Napster secure wma file + tunebite (or similar recording software) = DRM semi-workaround

This way you get to keep all those songs after the subscription.

THIS can transcode protected WMA to MP3. It can transcode in bulk, digitally, and at high speed using the LAME codec.

I just have to ask what's the point of paying for a legal service, then violating the DMCA?
Just seems kinda silly is all, jumping through hoops transcoding. Plus the transcoding lowers the quality anyway.

I'm not advocating that downloading mp3s and never buying albums is good, since artists gotta make money somehow, but it just seems really ridiculous to pay for a service then violating their terms and the DMCA anyway. I mean, why half-ass breaking the law?

If you're gonna break the law to end up with an mp3 you might as well just break the law and just go download the mp3 to begin with, instead of jumping through 100 hoops just to crack a copy.

And mind you, I have a napster subscription myself, but I don't waste my time cracking the songs on it. I don't have the to-go version but napster lets you download them onto your hard drive for playback now (it wasn't always like that) to help performance and save their bandwidth.

I actually liked Real Rhapsody better in terms of software functionality though, since Napster is a horrible resource hog in all it's possible trims, including the light edition and the wmp10 plugin. But I'm going with napster since...well I don't really have much of a choice since our school kinda paid for subscriptions for all of us, to get the RIAA off our backs.

I just don't see the logic in jumping through hoops to avoid breaking the law, but breaking the law anyway by your hoop jumping I guess. You might as well just say eff it and blatantly pirate. Or is it just fear of being sued by the RIAA?

 

[KenSimone]

I'm not advocating that downloading mp3s and never buying albums is good, since artists gotta make money somehow, but it just seems really ridiculous to pay for a service then violating their terms and the DMCA anyway. I mean, why half-ass breaking the law?

In my mind it's like stealing an x-box versus modding an x-box. One is a technical license violation that doesn't really cause anybody to lose anything, the other is taking money out of someone's pocket.

 

[KenSimone]

I'm also giving this software a try, but encoding seems anything but "high speed". So far it has taken ~20 minutes to convert one 3 minute song! Am I missing something here? Also, does anyone know what kind of encoding/converting is going on? Is it all digital, or digital to analog to digital?

Use the LAME MP3 Encoding plugin. Encoding time increases dramtically (like 2 minutes versus 20 minutes).

 

[mlrtime]

The other BIG difference is that you don't have to worry about getting a lawsuit letter from the RIAA. Those f**kers send lawsuits to dead people.

 

[gwag]

re-encode encoded music = crappy music 9not to thread crap.

 

[KenSimone]

re-encode encoded music = crappy music 9not to thread crap.

People always say this, but I've never experienced it. Is this really true? I would expect the first encoding to be fairly lossy (original to compressed), but re-encodings to be a lot less lossy, since the audio already fits the mathematical model the compressor is looking for (as a result of having already going through the compression process).

 

[bobfloyd]

Follow-up: I received my H10 today -- excellent delivery service!
I'm very happy with the deal on this and thanks to whoever posted this first.

FWIW, I'm less than thrilled with what I've seen so far from Napster. Their music selections are extremely limited and mostly they seem to be trying to get you to purchase full albums by offering the occasional track for download.

I ain't complaining -- anything I actually download and listen to from Napster is just gravy on top of this excellent MP3 player.