My Napster Diary
My music library has been getting shamefully out of date. So, I crossed over to the dark side and started shopping for a music download service. Never a supporter of a compressed audio formats, I found listening to MP3s irritating. Poor quality, digital glitches, etc. But, these days – all our electronic toys play MP3s. The phone, car radio, TV, computer, the list goes on.
A buddy at work mentioned the Alltunes service. It’s a Russian site that sells a boatload of songs for around 15 to 20 cents each. Sounds cool – I’ll bite!
Alltunes works by getting you to install a dedicated browser and download manager. This nifty little program allows you to create a list of the songs before you buy. Now comes the hard part – buying.
You see, these overseas (outside the U.S.) sites are dodging the big label lawyers for rights to sell this stuff. The attorneys are having a hard time shutting down the actual service, so they hit’em where it really counts – in the pocket. You can not use a U.S. credit card, debit card, or PayPal account to make a purchase.
In fact, none of the transaction resources Alltunes uses allowed me to open a new account.
How do you say goodbye in Russian?
After a few Google searches for reviews, I found the new and improved (and legal) Napster download service. They are now owned by Best Buy.
In their own words…
Napster combines on-demand music streaming with MP3 downloads that can be saved, copied, burned to CD or transferred to any MP3 player/music enabled cell.
MP3 track credits that are included in a Napster subscription may be used to purchase any track, regardless of the individual track price. Save on individual track prices by becoming a Napster subscriber.
[Purchase] MP3s from Napster for only $.69. Our catalog of more than seven million MP3s is now for sale at prices ranging between $.69 and $1.29, based on suggested retail prices.
And the MP3s are DRM free. Okay, I’m interested! Let’s do it!
I selected the middle tier subscription, fifteen dollars (U.S.) for three months of unlimited streaming and 15 ‘credits’ (plus 5 bonus credits just for being a nice guy,) to purchase MP3s. Basically, that’s one song per MP3 credit. Right now, they are running a special where they give you an extra 5 credits. If you want to download more songs, you’ll either wait for three months or purchase them over-and-above the contract at the rates mentioned earlier. As I have found, most are 99 cents.
Napster features custom software. For lack of a name, I am going to call it NapSoft. Not to be confused with their download manager (DLM.) The NapSoft program should give me additional ‘features.’ My install did not function properly. The Windows Data Execution Prevention blocked it from opening. And yes, I added it to the exceptions list. Even after switching off the DEP, it would not open. I believe it has something to do with my 64-bit operating system. Although, nothing in their documentation says “no Win XP 64-bit.”
Moving past NapSoft, I proceeded with my membership using my regular web browser.
I added twenty songs to a category labeled ‘My Library.’ Interestingly, they do not have a shopping cart where I can collect songs and purchase with one click. I had to select the buy option for each song. Once selected, a pop-up asks if I want to buy. After selecting to buy, another pop-up tells me my download is about to start. At almost the same moment, I get a third pop-up showing an error. No file was downloaded.
Checking the Napster help pages, they recommend installing their download manager. After installing the DLM, I return to my multi-step process of buying songs. Each time I get the same error and the newly installed download manager never kicks in. I assume the DLM must only work in combination with NapSoft.
Back to my web browser, hovering over the ‘My Account’ link at the top of the Napster home, I select ‘Track Purchase History.’ There I find all the songs I attempted to download waiting to be downloaded one-song-at-a-time.
In the process of creating the list, I added a song twice. Sure would be nice if Napster would provide an alert to possible duplicates. Nope! I just lost one MP3 credit. My bad! To add more aggravation, three of the downloaded songs did not download completely. I ended up with everything from a few seconds to a few minutes of those songs! That’s Napster’s bad!
Looking for a way to make the interface with Napster more efficient, I install the Windows Media Player 11 plug-in. The plug-in gives WMP the ability to sync up to three computers with your purchased library of songs. Or, should I say ‘rented’ library of songs. If I buy songs through WMP, they are in windows media format (WMA) with DRM limitations and not DRM free MP3. That’s another story for another time.
Using the web form customer service contact I sent the following to both ‘Troubleshooting’ and ‘System Requirements & Compatibility’:
Dear Napster,
Your Napster program does not work on my computer. Without the Napster program your download manager does not function. In the process of downloading my 20 tracks, three of the songs were incomplete. Only a portion downloaded.
How can I get a complete version of the songs I bought?
Why doesn’t the Napster software work on my computer? I am running Windows XP Professional 64-bit edition.
Please help!
Thank you.
Later that same day:
Hi Joseph Ezell,
Thanks for contacting Napster Customer Support.
We feel the difficulties that you are having with your Napster service would best be remedied by a conversation with a technician. Please contact our free Technical Support line at 1-800-839-4210, and press 3 for Technical Support and have your username or 9 digit member ID ready. Live Technical Support is offered Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM Eastern Time.
Thanks for using Napster!
The Napster Team
Since it was the weekend, I waited until Monday night to make my call.
From dialing to talking to a live person took about five minutes. Without boring you with the hour long try this, try that details – suffice it to say my issues were not resolved. Turns out Napster does not support 64-bit Windows XP.
Along the way, I discovered the Napster support site http://support.napster.com. That’s where you will find a few tools for removing the now infamous NapSoft. It was also recommended I install Update for Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP (KB939683). If you are having a problem and think it might help, you’ll find the 32-bit and 64-bit versions at Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=939683.
The Customer Service Representative did help by allowing me to re-download the three songs that screwed up.
Caveat emptor! Some artists record the same song several different times. You may find a live version, an acoustic version, a demo version, a re-recorded 20 years after-most-of-the-members-have-left-the-band version, you get the idea. So – LBYB! Listen Before You Buy. Napster lets you listen to a 128 Kbps version of the song for free. Make sure it’s the one you know and love.
All-in-all, Napster isn’t bad. I wish they had specifically said “We do not support Windows XP Professional 64-bit version.” Like most people, if you are running a 32-bit operating system you might enjoy Napster. I may take another look at iTunes.
Thanks for indulging me. What do you think?
Joe
