Music that flows like water ...
... well, at least a trickle ...
Napster has revamped its offerings, now anyone can listen to any song for up to five plays for free (with their ad-supported streaming flash player). Napster is trying to make it easy for folks to exchange links and playlists, hoping for the network effect as users sharing playlists drive more listeners to Napster. This is a really good step for people interested in new music. With most online music services, you can listen to 30 second snippets of songs, which is not enough (at least for me) to decide if I want to buy a song, but five plays is enough. The real power though will come with the ability to share playlists. Right now there's no good way to share playlists with someone unless you both are members of the same subscription service. With the new Napster offering you'll be able to share Napster playlists with anyone (they still have to be Napster members, but there's no cost to register). This is a good step on the way to the 'celestial jukebox' when all music is available all the time and music flows like water does from the tap.
Napster has revamped its offerings, now anyone can listen to any song for up to five plays for free (with their ad-supported streaming flash player). Napster is trying to make it easy for folks to exchange links and playlists, hoping for the network effect as users sharing playlists drive more listeners to Napster. This is a really good step for people interested in new music. With most online music services, you can listen to 30 second snippets of songs, which is not enough (at least for me) to decide if I want to buy a song, but five plays is enough. The real power though will come with the ability to share playlists. Right now there's no good way to share playlists with someone unless you both are members of the same subscription service. With the new Napster offering you'll be able to share Napster playlists with anyone (they still have to be Napster members, but there's no cost to register). This is a good step on the way to the 'celestial jukebox' when all music is available all the time and music flows like water does from the tap.
Posted by Elliot Daverty on May 04, 2006 at 08:26 AM EDT #