The Rants of Issachar

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Napster

Currently Listening to:
Napster.ca
Whatever I feel like...


Thank you to Caleb for mentioning Napster to me. I signed up last night and so far the service looks good.

There's a few... shall I say "issues" with the service though. I've actually e-mailed them about them, so I might try writing up something a bit longer if I get an answer back. So for now, only a few comments.

Positives:
  1. I like the subscription model for getting music. Far better than buying CD's in my opinion.
  2. $10 per month is a very reasonable price.
  3. It's fast and easy. Legalities aside, Limewire might be cheaper, but it's more of a hassle.
  4. The features of the "Radio" stations are superior to those in iTunes. (User modifiable playlists)
Negatives:
  1. The subscription model breaks down unless they've got virtually everything I'd want to listen to. This means they need to have everything. They're not there yet.
  2. What's with 1 million songs available in the UK and the US, but only 700,000 in Canada? I asked them about it, and they said it was because of different music licensing in different countries. So... Fix it!
  3. Having part of library unavailable for streaming/download and available only for purchase as tracks are sold in iTunes. Lame. If I wanted to buy music a la carte, I'd go with iTunes. Apple sells them for less anyway.
  4. Charging extra for letting you listen to your music on a DRM-enabled mp3 player. This should be basic service.
  5. The searching interface needs improvement. Too much clicking required.
  6. The software should not crash. Which it did when I was listening to my first song. It got messed so badly I had to use System Restore to get it back. No problems since then though. It might have had to do with upgrading to Windows Media Player 10. (I see no reason to do that again and confirm my suspicion.
All in all though I think I'm going to like Napster. We'll see.


:: posted by issachar, 4:08 PM

4 Comments:

Posted by: Blogger Graves

*sigh* young man, how exactly am I supposed to reply to comments you leave on your other blog when you don't have any place for them, hm?

I was reduced to leaving comments in your guestbook (grumbles).

Sorry, I have nothing intelligent
to say about Napster.
Blogger Graves, at Mon Nov 21, 04:53:00 PM PST  
Posted by: Blogger issachar

My other blog? What other blog?
Blogger issachar, at Mon Nov 21, 05:12:00 PM PST  
Posted by: Blogger Graves

your super secret xanga (dork)
Blogger Graves, at Tue Nov 22, 08:36:00 PM PST  
Posted by: Blogger issachar

oh that. That's not a blog. That's just a Xanga account that I need to post on other people's Xanga blogs.
Blogger issachar, at Tue Nov 22, 11:08:00 PM PST  

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