Napster Reviewer's Comments

The company that started the P2P revolution has gone legit. Napster “TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award” winner comes in a tight third to iTunes and Rhapsody. With more than four million songs, an integrated music player, media manager and portable device flexibility the only thing holding this service back was the difficulty we had installing it. 

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MP3 Music Selection:  

With more than four million songs available you can find just about anything you are looking for. There are 19 genres, including comedy tracks, Latin and children’s music. They also have staff picks and radio stations to stream. 

Search Capablities:  

Napster offered all the typical ways to search including by artist, title, album and genre. We were disappointed that we were stone walled and couldn’t search the site without signing up for the free “light” service and downloading their music player.

Additionally, Napster actively promotes their subscription service, and although they offer single songs for purchase, you have to do some digging to find them. 

Feature Set*:  

Napster includes all the features you’d expect to find in a music download service, including a media player. However, you have to import your existing files manually.

Our favorite feature on this site is the automix. Essentially, automix is just a streaming radio station, but the station is tailored to your taste based on the artists and songs already in your library. Napster also gives you a list of other stations to listen to included with your subscription. 

Download/Setup:  

We had some difficulty downloading Napster’s media player. The application insisted on changing our registry to automatically launch once Windows was started. This pretty much means Napster will be a permanent fixture in your tray (that small selection of programs that are always visible in the bottom right-hand corner next to your clock.) Although most people won’t notice, we found this requirement to be annoying and unnecessary.

This service can be a little confusing. You do not have to have a subscription to buy music. You can buy music from Napster by song or album for $.99 and $9.99 respectably, just like iTunes. These are your songs and they can be burned to CD or transferred to a PlaysForSure WMA portable device. However, Napster doesn’t actively promote this service and would rather you subscribe.

They have two subscription plans, the basic plan is $9.99 and the “To Go” option is $14.95 per month. You can only transfer music to your MP3 player or cell phone with the “To Go” plan. Both plans allow you to download as much music as you want while your subscription is active. Once you cancel, those songs will no longer play. 

Help/Support:  

Napster includes a plethora of help options including email support, a user guide, FAQs and telephone support.

Summary:  

With more than four million songs you can’t go wrong with Napster. In our opinion, the only thing holding this service back is their insistence on changing our registry, and although we loved the automix feature, the music player did not automatically import our current music collection.