“Napster To Go… offers users a completely different model for buying and playing music, a model that Apple can’t match today,” Walter S. Mossberg reports for The Wall street Journal. “With iTunes, you buy new songs for 99 cents each. Once the songs are downloaded to a Windows or Macintosh computer, you own them forever and can do what you like with them, within certain limits. You can store them on multiple PCs, and copy them to an unlimited number of iPod music players. This has worked so well that Apple has sold more than 300 million songs. But there’s a downside to Apple’s system: If you’re a heavy music purchaser, buying thousands of new songs will cost thousands of dollars.”
“Napster To Go also allows you to download songs and to copy them onto a portable player. But Napster To Go doesn’t charge for each song; in fact, Napster doesn’t really sell them to you. Instead, it rents the music, for a monthly subscription fee of $14.95. As long as you pay the monthly fee, you can download as many tracks as you want. So, if you’re inclined to download thousands of tracks, you’re not out thousands of dollars,” Mossberg reports. “Apple has scoffed at the rental/subscription model. But if it takes off, the computer maker may be forced to respond with its own subscription service. I’ve been testing Napster To Go with one of the best compatible players, the iRiver H10. The Napster software used to access the service isn’t as well designed, or as simple to use, as iTunes; and none of the compatible players is as good as an iPod.”
“There is one huge downside to the Napster approach. If you stop paying your monthly fee, the music dies… [And] Napster can be far more confusing to use than iTunes. Not all songs can be rented. Some can only be purchased. Others can only be rented, and not purchased,” Mossberg reports. “The Napster software is also clumsier than iTunes. You can’t see the status of downloads or of song transfers to a portable player without switching to a separate window. Searching for music, and creating playlists, is more awkward than in iTunes.”
“Also, in my tests of Napster To Go on three different PCs, I ran into repeated problems transferring rented songs to the iRiver player. Several times the transfer process choked, and I had to quit and start over. In one case, I received a mystifying error message that read: ‘I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request.’ I have never had such problems with iTunes,” Mossberg reports. “Still, Napster To Go offers a real alternative to Apple’s offering. It will be interesting to see how the market responds.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, if the subscription model takes off, Apple could add the subscription option to iTunes Music Store, which would be cross-platform, working on Macs and Windows PCs and also iPods – unlike Napster To Go. That would leave Napster up the iRiver without a paddle.
To tell them apart…
..how ’bout 128AAC-fp for purchase, and 128WMA-?? for rentals!
I hate all these download models (because of the DRM employed). DRM sucks! Low bit-rates suck!
I’m gonna stick to CDs/SACDs for a while to come.
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The author mentions iTunes not having any problems. I’ve had it crash on me numerous times on both Windows and Mac. Maybe he just casually forgets such things to prove his point better. 🙁
I hate all these download models (because of the DRM employed). DRM sucks! Low bit-rates suck!
I’m gonna stick to CDs/SACDs for a while to come.
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The author mentions iTunes not having any problems. I’ve had it crash on me numerous times on both Windows and Mac. Maybe he just casually forgets such things to prove his point better. 🙁
Maybe he just casually forgets such things to prove his point better. 🙁
or, maybe he didn’t have the same experience as you,
or, maybe his machines aren’t overloaded with haxies and 3rd party add-ons
or, maybe he was referring to the iTunes-iPod integration and not iTunes generally
or, maybe you are 100% right and this was an insidious and underhanded attack on a fine iTunes alternative
Check out the support boards at Apple for your numerous crashing problems. Sounds like you have some more general problems with your machines
A subscription model sounds like a beautiful spring day…your senses are fascinated by all of the
offerings from Napster that you decide to download.
Month to month…Napster gets a certain amount of
feedback from thier subscribers to monitor the industry.
Of which they belong to.
That’s the trade off.
Apple’s iTunes relies on the consumer making good
choices, one song at a time — that they keep forever,
if they so choose.
Apple gets similiar information, but more serious…
comparing the cost. Apple isn’t a member of the
record industry and thier information shouldn’t affect
record company decisions as precisely as the Napster
offering.
I can see that some people might feel that Napster
has 2 options (renting and purchasing) and Apple just has one (purchasing). Before I jump into the debate
here, I think that it’s just a matter of taste. Do you
test the water before you jump in or do you dive right
in?
CT (far from blind, but much more in tune)
P.S. Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids! (Advertising just
don’t quit…repetition is damaging) To Ad…or
to Ad not…more or less…we never knew minds
were so disciplined. Music ::sigh::
Hey…but don’t you have to buy the renting model?
I don’t know enough about it…dangerous ground here.
CTΩ
Apple does give it’s iTunes users song previews…
So much music…FOR SALE!!! I’m starting to sense
a HUMMMmmmmm. Bank accounts going up and down, Activity
shifting from Malls to cyberspace, Lucky parents getting
breakfast in bed from thier savvy web working children…
Must be something about a train that’s magic. All
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aboard…next stop, “The Wonder Years”
CT
Uhh, I personally don’t think that $14 million projected QUARTERLY revenue (which is what Napster does) is exactly “taking off”. iTMS earns that much in less than 2 weeks.
Funny – Rhapsody has been offering this service for over 4 years and never gets any publicity. I have a 16MB mp3 player with over 3000 subscription tracks – and delete and load a few new albums each month. I guess I don’t understand why anyone would be buing music from itunes when you can subscribe for the monthly cost of one cd and listen to pretty much anything you want anywhere