“Whether you like Napster To Go, Napster Inc.’s new music subscription service, depends on whether you think of it as all-you-can-eat or all-you-can-pay. Both descriptions are accurate. For $15 a month, Napster To Go offers unlimited song downloads in a copy-restricted format that can be played on computers with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows XP operating system and some digital music players,” Rob Pegoraro writes for The Washington Post in an article syndicated by The Northwest Herald. “But these songs expire if you do not keep paying that fee each month.”
“Because this underlying software is so new, Napster To Go is the least compatible music store in existence. You can use it only on a Windows XP computer running Windows Media Player 10, and you can transfer your downloads only to a Windows Media-compatible player that includes special software and circuitry to enforce the pay-to-play deal,” Pegoraro writes. “So, these downloads do not play on Apple’s iPods. They also do not work on most non-Apple players. What Napster’s ads ignore is that most people already own a significant music collection, so how many songs will they rent?”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Napster’s dirty little secret: changing subscription services into downloads is easy – February 18, 2005
AOL removes Napster pirate plug-in ‘Output Stacker’ from website – February 17, 2005
Napster feels the heat over flawed copy-protection scheme – February 17, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs warns record industry of Napster To Go’s security gap – February 16, 2005
Users thwart Napster To Go’s copy protection; do the music labels realize the piracy potential? – February 15, 2005
Napster-To-Go’s ‘rental music’ DRM circumvented – February 14, 2005
