I don't get the new napster, do you actually get the files on your computer or do you need to be online to hear them?

Also does anyone use it? Is it good and worth the money? I'm debating if I want to get it because the monthly fee really isn't that much. Heres a link to the site if your lazy: Napster

I had a subscription for a while, which meant I could download as much as I wanted and listen to it on up to 3 PCs. I think you needed to be on line because the software does a licence check, but I have DSL anyway so I didn't pay much attention to that. If you bought a track or album you could burn it to CD, but that was it. If you let your subscription lapse you could no longer listen to any of the tracks.

Since then it has changed and now you can transfer songs to an MP3 player without having to buy them, which makes it a lot more attractive - effectively unlimited downloads for the cost of one CD a month they say. The selection isn't bad - better than iTunes in some areas, not so good in others. The player has to be a Napster compatible one apparently. Still the same deal with burning though, and still the licencing issue - you stop paying, you stop being able to listen. You aren't buying music, you are renting it.

couldn't you just take an ipod, save those songs you download to it, then transfer them to another computer by telling the ipod to act like a hard drive and their yours forever

would that work?

I think at that point, I would go and reinstall Soulseek.

That's something the Napsters and Itunes of the world haven't figured out. They pit something that costs money, and is loaded with disadvantages that require workarounds, versus something that costs nothing and is completely flexible.

Continuing the workaround thought, I would think if that didn't work for an Ipod it would be because the files themsevles would retain some sort of tag that checks for license as Thom has mentioned. Using that logic, the Ipod would simply be acting as a HD and not changing the state of its contents. It could be that burning to CD and then reripping would be the only workaround, if that is the case.

I mean soulseek is nice but it could be a lot better. I'm constantly banning people because they dont share, too few users sharing some hard to find music, I'm sick of lines also. If I can pay 10 bucks a month and get rid of those things then I'd do it.

The question is would my idea, that I mentioned the post before, work?

soulseek has a great community let down by the software IMO. There's so many features is doesn't have, and it absolutely rapes bandwidth. The newest build also crashes a whole a lot.

I tend only to use the simplest aspects of Soulseek, but there are still issues there, I agree. The random crashes/disconnects/inability to connect at all can be maddening.

Sorry for the late reply - I've just been in Ireland for a week.

The Napster files are copy protected, so unless you had the expertise to crack the software you would have to re-record each track using something like TotalRecorder. So far as the copyright position is concerned there wouldn't be much difference between that and downloading, although there would of course be a much smaller chance of getting caught.

I tried one of those peer to peer download applications and to be honest it was so much trouble that I only used it once. The effect that sharing had on my upstream connection and the long wait you had to download from busy users makes the Napster subscription seem like a real bargain. File sharing may give you a wider choice of tracks, but when you combine the hassle with the risk of getting sued it is a no brainer for me.

I don't get why you'd have to re-record each track, wouldn't that cause a huge drop in quality too?

And how is the library on Napster? If it doesn't have everything then there is no point.

OK, your portable player has to have the Napster firmware installed to manage the licence attached to each track, and that is why it has to be one of a limited range of models. There is a limit to the number of times you can transfer a track to the player in a single month, as well as other restrictions and checks that you are a current subscriber, to stop people doing what you suggest. The same checks take place on your PC. If you cancel your subscription the tracks won't play at all.

There are two possible workarounds for that. First, you crack the copy protection. Second, you re-record each track so you get a plain MP3 copy without the licence attached to it. Yes, there would be a drop in quality, but if audio quality were your main concern you would be buying the CD, not downloading compressed 128Kbps files.

As for the size of the library, Napster say they have over 1 million tracks from 60,000 artists, but the nature of this kind of service is that they can't have everything, and I don't think they ever will. This will especially apply to obscure stuff, but you can judge for yourself by downloading the software and searching for the kind of music you want.