"Napster To Go" - Am I missing something?

[AdamInPlaidum]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has seen the Napster commercials challenging us to "do the math" on using an iPod with iTunes as opposed to this new Napster To Go service. The commercial states the following:

10,000 songs for an iPod = $10,000

Any of millions of songs from Napster To Go = $15 a month

This commercial leads me to believe that for $15 a month, Napster will let you download whatever you want. But after perusing the AWFUL Napster website for about 20 minutes, I've come to the conclusion that you still have to pay $0.99 a song, but you ALSO have to pay $15 to download them to your mp3 player. So...am I missing something about the Napster service or are they really just trying to trick people into thinking they are getting a good deal?

 

[Murcielago77]

well napster to go only works on napster to go compatible players. It just puts music on there but its not really yours. You cant transfer it anywhere else i dont think. You only pay 99 cents a song i think if you have a non napster to go compatible player and then the music becomes yours like if you were to buy it on itunes.

 

[davidmt]

Yahoo is supposed to offer a similar service soon--price is only 6.99 a month. Only 1 million songs will be offered initially, which might be kind of limiting. I never thought I'd want to do a subsription service because you don't own the music. Once you stop the service, you lose the songs. But a price like $7 a month is tempting. It gives you an opportunity to try out different music, and you can always keep your library fresh with music you want to listen to. On the downside, you can't burn the songs to CD and Yahoo won't work with iPods, which is what I have.

Press release: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050511/ap_on_hi_te/yahoo_music

"Yahoo has announced that they will also be entering the online music download market with a new subscription-based service.

Yahoo's new service will offer unlimited access to a library of 1 million songs for $6.99 a month. The new service is akin to Napster's current "To Go" service which also offers unlimited access to songs for a monthly fee. Napster's service, however, costs $14.95/month.

With both services, users have access to any of the available songs while paying the monthly access fee, but loses playback ability if the service is discontinued. Use of songs is limited to supported MP3 players and can not be burned to CD without an extra fee."

 

[electrictroy]

It sounds similar to radio, except instead of a disc jockey, YOU decide what songs you will hear.

troy

 

[62t]

i would recommand allofmp3.com for songs. You really cant beat their price.

 

[AdamInPlaidum]

[quote name='62t']i would recommand allofmp3.com for songs. You really cant beat their price.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that site really is amazing.

 

[zman73]

I love how the Napster ads assume that the person with the ipod doesnt have any cds in which they could transfer those songs to their itunes playlist and then to their ipod

it is definantly advertising for people who dont know too much about the subject, trying to scare them with that $10000

Being a dedicated mac user for years (my design job requires me to sit in front of the computer alot)... it is nice to see them regain the success they havent had for a long time.. even if it is for MP3 players