I'm a beta tester for the new, (not free) pay-for-play Napster.
 

I just installed and used the new beta Napster. The interface is cool, easy to navigate. Speeds seem to be pretty fast. BUT, there were only 8 users online - including me. AND, they now have their own file format, the .NAP file. I don't know if they are able to play on a portable MP3 player as I don't have one. Also, there were NO returns of files with a bitrate of higher than 128. And the selection is suckekeke, probably because of the low number of users.

Anyway, is anyone else a Napster beta tester? What are your thoughts?

Is this the pay service they are going to do? Or sitll pirate?

It's the pay service. I get to use it up until the launch, then get one free month after the pay-launch.

Thanks, I should have put that in the thread title.

This might be something I would pay for but only under these conditions. I mean the pirate market is still very much thriving so Napster needs to do something big to lure people away from that.

My conditions...

So you still can encode files on your own, right? Are there any restrictions on what these files can be?

Napster was great for rare, OOP, and unreleased stuff. Once it died, all the people with cool stuff fragmented all over the place. If it can be something like the old days, I would be all for it.

Also, it is strictly music, or is it going to get clogged up with warez and porno like morpheus?

I'm assuming you can encode your own stuff because it said that it will trade the .nap and .mp3 file types. I also think they are trying to use file quality as a lure to bring people into the pay service, so I don't think there will be many cut off files or anything. I also believe that it is strictly music, well I know it is, because it only trades mp3's and the .nap's.

The last email i got from them said the subscription will be $5 - $10 per month. But, that includes a d/l limit. You'll only be able to download a certain number of songs per month.

everyone has moved on from Napster

like to Morpheus (www.musiccity.com)

why pay when u can get for free ?

not a song i haven't found on Morpheus

Update on the "New" Napster. The damm thing won't even open. -rolleyes- Hey, I know it's just a beta version. But I agree with Desmond. Who the hell's gonna pay for this when they can get anything they want for free if they just know where to look?

Well, Morpheus/Kazaa are probably going to the way of the "old" Napster before too long (in other words, deceased due to court order).

Shame really.

and another one will take it's place like Morpheus did to napster :)

u can't stop the power of the net !

Scour and napster went down, Morpheus, Imesh, Audiogalaxy etc came along, something new will always come along

Plus Usenet is the motherload of all mp3s. I just wonder when RIAA will get to that. Or are newsgroups protected somehow?

I won't ever touch Napster again. They aren't getting any money from me :)

I just will use Morpheus or whatever comes out after that. Plus there is always IRC.

And I still buy cds.

I really don't think this new napster is going to work out at all. They don't have crap for selection, it's all indie stuff. The thought of indie stuff is cool, but since you've never heard of it, are you going to waste your time connecting so some guy on a 14.4 connection to get some song from some band you never heard of?

BTW, it won't let me share any of my other mp3's except those I've d/l'd from it already. Probably because those other songs aren't under contract or aren't an approved file type.

I think all these 'pay to download' share services are doomed to fail the way they are setup. I don't know exactly what the answer is, but I feel the record companies are going about the whole thing the wrong way.

Perhaps there could be a small fee, say $4.95 a month, that users would pay for unlimited use of the Napster service (the way it was, unrestricted sharing of .mp3's not .nap's). Each time a download is completed the artist is recorded and gets a share of the profits at the end of the month based on the number of times their work is downloaded. Of course the record companies should have no problem supporting that since they're looking out for the artist's best interests. -rolleyes-

audiogalaxy actually predates napster. It will also last longer most likely

The problem is that because so many people used napster, the RIAA thinks that people want to download music. Sure, some people do, but they don't want to pay for it.

I'd much rather they lower their prices on CDs.

I think that's the plan, but I don't know if they're going to allow unrestricted file types. I know they said that the subscription would be between 5 and 10 dollars. Probably 5 or 6 for 50 to 100 d/l's and 9 or 10 for unlimited.

Also. If users are going to pay for this service, they are going to want uninterrupted downloads, and are going to seek out members with broadband connections to download from. So, that means that the brunt of the support for the network is going to be on the population that is probably the vast minority, being that most people still connect through dialup. How will that play out?

any ideas?

The motherload of all mp3s are the FTP networks established between computers on multiple T3 lines containing terabytes of music. This network has been running scared since the FBI arrests.

Audiogalaxy, like oth.net, was around way before Napster.

:)

audiogalaxy
 

audiogalaxy rocks
 

I love audiogalaxy, it has so much more rare stuff then napster ever had. Great for finding rare bsides.

yeah, but I remember using it ONLY to look for ftp sites until Napster came around. It was only then that they offered file serving software. So, I'm not sure it is fair to say it predates napster, I think it has just morphed in services. Maybe I'm mistaken though.

The thing with AG is that it's great but if it keeps bundling spyware with its software it'll soon fall.

I can't see this new Napster thing taking off at all. Who the hell is going to PAY for a download service where you can only download a limited selction of .nap files?(what the hell are those?)

I agree with Oliver Clothesoff. Just lower the damn prices on CDs.

Doesn't that guy have to pay like around $19 million to record companies? Sucks to be him, we ALL used Napster, we're the reason it got so big, we're the reason the record companies found out and we're the reason he got sued. And we're ditching the guy when he needs money. We all loved the program tho :D

Holy crap, is that true?