After talking with Acidus the other day about Napster's revamped format, it occured to me that some common misgivings are present where their download policy is concerned. I present them for your review because I have found their service to be useful and more content-rich than iTunes in addition to having some interesting features. Background: I skipped downloading more than about 10 songs a quarter because I hardly ever found what I wanted on the "Top 40" flavor of iTunes. I asked around about Napster, and most everyone was under the impression that the monthly fee only allows you to rent songs playable only on your PC, after cessation of which your access to the music ends. This is true, but this is only one method of accessing Napster's motley library and you are actually allowed to access your account and downloaded tracks on up to 3 PCs w/ Napster's software. The Rest of the Story: The other two ways you can access music include a non-monthly fee, $.99 download service similar to iTunes or a slightly higher monthly fee ($14.95 vs $9.95) which allows you all the comforts of regular Napster plus unlimited downloading to a Napster approved player of which my H320 iRiver just happens to be. If you want to burn the songs to CD, however, you have to pay $.99/song no matter which of the three versions you have. It just depends on if you want to listen to full-length tracks before downloading and access downloaded tracks on up to 3 PCs (Napster), that plus transfer to portable players (Napster To Go), or just buy music for your library to keep forever (Napster Light). Cool Stuff: The coolest thing about Napster is the ease of use. The GUI is clean and intuitive and you can easily access other users' libraries and find stuff that "you will like if you like Band X". Also, Napster's built-in recommendation agent seems pretty on target. Unclear: I can't tell yet whether tracks downloaded through Napster To Go and transferred to my iRiver will remain playable after my membership ends. They secretively allude to expiration software built into the tracks, but I'm curious if it goes so far as to expire in a Mission Impossible this-message-will-self-destruct-in-five-seconds takeoff. I also am suspicious that not all songs will be transferrable and that I will have to pay in addition to the higher monthly fee in order to transfer songs to my iRiver. Conclusion: The whole thing is damn well complicated and exaccerbated by the horrible explanation on Napster's FAQ. What few gritty details they provide are on the FAQ which is passably organized at best. I am also angered by the fact that you pay a monthly fee for the priveledge of basically listening to a full track before downloading. Otherwise, to play it on your PC, transfer to MP3 players or CDs, or just to keep the songs forever, you [seemingly] have to pay $.99/song regardless of your membership type. Verdict: Membership on Napster is only really worth it if tracks transferred through Napster To Go are available to you forever on your MP3 player as an unprotected song that you can play in Winamp later on. I'll know soon enough when I cancel my one week free trial tomorrow. Even if they aren't available on your portable player, I may just switch to the $9.95 version if I determine that browsing member's collections turns out to be an efficient way to find stuff I haven't heard before. All in all, membership seems like an awfully expensive way of finding something that hasn't been Clear Channel sanitized. -janelane, fuzzily | 
