Beleaguered Napster hikes Music subscription prices by 30%

Beleaguered “Napster has increased the subscription fees for its digital music service by about 30%, from $9.95 per month to $12.95 per month, the company said in an e-mail to subscribers,” Mark Hefflinger reports for Digital Media Wire.

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Just give up the charade already, sheesh.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “HMCIV” for the heads up.]

97 Comments

  1. C1 & TT,

    I went and dug out my remaining 45s. Looks like the last one I bought was ‘Baker Street’ by Gerry Rafferty. The oldest appears to be ‘The Little Old Lady From Pasadena’ by Jan & Dean.

    By the Beatles (A side) I only have ‘I Am The Walrus’, ‘All You Need Is Love’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. Plus John Ono Lennon’s ‘Instant Karma’.

    Others like ‘Whole Lotta Love’ by Led Zeppelin, ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ by Steppenwolf and ‘S.O.S.’ by ABBA. Of the ones with price stickers on them, 79¢ was the highest price.

    They are in extremely good condition. I wonder what they are worth.

  2. ChrissyOne,

    I still have the last turntable I bought about 15 years ago. I will hang onto it since I have a few hundred LP albums left. I gave around 300 of them away years ago. Some would have been real collectors items. I’ve done that with books also. Oh well, at least they went to people who appreciated them.

  3. I have a bit of vinyl but not much. My mom’s stuff, a lot of import and indy music from the 80’s like my prized white-vinyl copy of Bleach and my XTC 12″s, quite a few interview picture-discs, and some odds and ends from my childhood like k-Tel’s Super HIts with “Popcorn” on it. I still, however, have a giant box of cassette tapes that I will probably never listen to again, and are most likely completely worthless.

  4. TT,

    My first was an Acoustics Research with a Pickering cartridge.
    My second was also a Garrard changer with an Empire. I loved the mechanics of that tone arm.
    The one I have now is a Dual with an AudioTechnica. It does the job.

    Back in the mid ’90s I was into the audiophile thing, buying the magazines and drooling over $10,000 amps. I still have some OK equipment that I don’t use now. Loved my Magnepan magnetic planar speakers. Look like a pair of narrow doors, but man they sound awesome in the sweet spot. I had a small room set up with my rig and one chair in the spot for critical listening.

    But I got over that. Now I load music on my Macs and iPods and just enjoy the tunes. Good equipment is nice, but the music is what counts.

  5. ChrissyOne,

    I had a bunch of cassettes that I had spent (God-only-knows how many) hours recording individual songs from LPs. I had them stored in a closet for a number of years, and they turned to crap. Totally worthless.

    I hated cassettes. Nothing like being out on a date and having the darn thing turn to a mass of spaghetti in your car stereo. I had better luck with 8-tracks. Good riddance to those things.

    Probably down the road people will be lamenting the fact that the music on their CD-Rs has turned to poop. It’s inevitable.

  6. I knew it all along. Zune Tang® is a fraud and a big fat phony! I bet she never owned a Windows PC in her life, and worse, probably doesn’t even have a Zune, Zoon or Ditty.

    If I were a betting man I’d say she has used Macs for nearly two decades and has 7 iPods in her household beginning with the first generation 5GB firewire/Mac only iPod. And it still works! Loser.

    Thank you, MDN for exposing the charade. Zune Tang®, give it up already, sheesh.

    Oh, and one more thing: 1988 vintage B & O RX2.

  7. Okay, I’m confused, I thought MDN’s webmaster just said Ottmar (and who names their kid Ottmar?) and ZT have the same IP address? Doesn’t that mean Ottmar is ZT? Or at least someone who is using Ottmar’s computer? Or someone who is surfing on Ottmar’s LAN?

  8. “The minute you stop paying for it you don’t have any music. Bargan, NO! Rip off, YES!”

    I don’t understand this reasoning. Why is music any different than video? I pay a hefty monthly sum to have the ability to watch hundreds of channels of crap on cable that someone else decides to let me view. I do not record any of it. If I don’t watch a program it is gone unless rerun. If I stop paying I am cut off. No more cable TV. I never bought or owned the programming.

    If I subscribe to a music service with the understanding that I can listen as long as I pay, that is my prerogative. I download to my PC or whatever as much as I want. I can listen to anything without being limited to 30 second snippets. If I like it enough I have the option to buy it, whether download or CD.

    If you consider it a rip-off, that’s your problem. I consider paying $10,000 for a Rolex watch a rip-off. There are rich people out there who disagree. That’s their right.

    If you stop paying for water or electricity you are cut-off. If you refuse to pay for gasoline you ain’t gonna drive. Music is a very desirable commodity, but not a necessity. Why not let the individual determine what is or is not a rip-off?

    There are those who consider the Mac to be a rip-off. If it was up to them our only choice would be a Windows PC. Others think we should only be allowed leaders of their preferred political party. I’m glad they don’t have that power – yet.

    For some reason, I have a feeling you have a lot of illegal downloads.

  9. “$12.95 is a bargain for all of that fabulous music on Napster in the wonderful WMA format…”

    Until you get laid off or fired and you have to start cutting back on life’s little luxuries… like music or radio subscriptions.

    On the other hand, an iPod will still keep playing everything you have during those inevitable economic setbacks that life likes to hit us all with.

  10. @ LorD1776
    “Why is music any different than video?”

    Yeah, you know, like the feeling you get when you think about the time you first fell in love, dancing slowly with that person you’d been dreaming about, the one that made you so sick you couldn’t eat or sleep or think about anything else. Al brought flooding back to you when you see that episode of Happy Days that was playing when you were making out with her in her parents basement…

    Or… maybe the song that was playing at the school dance was more memorable. Maybe that’s the one you want to keep.

    I pay for my video, but aside from the movies that I really like, and the occasional science series, I’m not likely to watch it ever again. I certainly won’t put an episode of The Daily Show into a playlist and watch it in my car 4 times a week. Video doesn’t make a lot of sense to own, but I guess that depends on how much you like music.

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