Napster Is a Mainstream Music Service

I have been using Napster for at least five years and am always surprised when people do not quite understand just what it is. I think that is because Napster first started out as a pier-to-pier music sharing service. They were also probably the first service to close their doors due to the questionable nature of the service. The whole mess was well publicized.

But Napster wasn’t down for long. It rose from the ashes as a very legitimate music service. They pioneered the idea of renting music.

Here’s how Napster works. As a subscriber you may listen online to millions of songs. The full versions! You may also transfer those songs to a portable MP3 player. The key difference between buying and renting is you must renew any songs on a portable player monthly. If your subscription is paid everything syncs up and you are good for another month. If you cancel the subscription, the songs expire. Pretty simple.

Where napster is just like iTunes is you can also purchase and download unprotected mp3s for 99 cents. A small percentage of the available songs must be purchased but I would wager that at least 90% may be listened to in their entirety online as well as transfered to mp3 players.

I recall the day my son moved into his dorm on the first day of college. A young IT student came into the room to connect his computer to the school’s network and said that Napster would not work on their system because it was a pier -to-pier sharing service. She and the school were and are still completely wrong. Napster is a very cool and economical mainstream music service. Just like iTunes, only way better!

If you are still not convinced of Napster’s mainstream status, check this out. The Napster company was recently purchased by Best Buy for 121 million dollars. There you go.

Anyway, I recommend Napster highly and you should consider at least giving them a try for free for a week.