Napster flirts with Apple fanboys

Napster has a message for all you iPod and iPhone owners: It's now selling DRM-free MP3s. Today, Napster unveiled a new version of its digital music service - for Americans only - offering its entire catalog for download in good old MP3 format, and as it was sure to point out in its press release, MP3s work just fine with …

[Anonymous Coward]

has to be said

what a bunch of paytards!

[Anonymous Coward]

No Safari/Opera support

Napster browser interface is blocked for Safari users, and gives script errors when previewing music via Opera v9.5 for Mac. Napster really on top of things for pulling in all users from iTunes, Amazon MP3.

[Antidisestablishmentarianist]

@has to be said

hahaha - excellent.

[Tom]

Yet another US only service

Go to Napster.ca and all you see is the same old DRM crap. If your outside of the US you can't use napster.com. Just like the MP3s on Amazon, it's US only.

[jamie]

FUD

> And these won't play on non-Apple handheld music players.

They play fine on my Sony Ericsson phone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I missing something?

What's this in the article about the DRM-free files off iTunes not playing on anything but iPods? I'm not an iTunes user so I can't easily check, but I thought that was the whole point/meaning of DRM-free?

[Andy Worth]

Re:No Safari/Opera support

"Napster browser interface is blocked for Safari users"

Convenient that. Apple's own browser will not load a competitors site properly. I wonder if it's deliberate?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only just for iPhones/iPods...

It also opens the market up to any cheap imitation iPod! ;-) So your Creatives and more now also can become paytards in this system!

And given a significant part of iPhone/iPod users also use Macs, ...and their site doesn't work on Macs, maybe it was created for Wintards instead?? :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Check your facts...

"Apple offers DRM-free downloads on its iTunes service - but only from from one mega-record label: EMI. And these won't play on non-Apple handheld music players."

Not true - they play back perfectly well on loads of non-Apple players, such as Sony Ericsson and Nokia mobile phones, or any other device that plays the superior Dolby-devised AAC format.

[Anonymous Coward]

US only...

What is it with all these services being US only?

Total pain in the arse. I would happily be legit and pay 99c for a track (especially given the exchange rate!)... Oh well, back to p2p for me... I'll try to get some sleep tonight knowing execs might not be able to afford to fill their bath with yak's milk, and artists could run out of Columbian marching powder.

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC: "US only"

> artists could run out of Columbian marching powder

If you restrict your music collection to those mega-artists who do indeed roll around in the white stuff, and refrain from ripping off any music made by the rest of us, the 99% of spectacularly poorly rewarded recording artists, then fine. But your mp3 collection will be pretty awful then, won't it.

[stu]

it is not US only

where do you get USA only??

http://www.napster.co.uk/more_about_napster.html

shows tracks at 79p....

[Michael]

Proxy server, anyone?

A lot of this restriction to national boundaries is to do with DRM : check out the broadcasting sites websites , and a lot of the content is "uk only" "roi only " etc.

One more reason to nail the lid on Vi$ta , i think.

[Anonymous Coward]

It was only a 9 year wait then

I will happily go legit when this is available in the UK, at reasonable prices. All I want is uncompromised mp3 files.

I find it frankly ridiculous it's taken 9 years for this to (almost) see the light of day. I've had no qualms being a freetard all this time, if they're gona waste my time by dragging their feet.

But for the minute, I'll stick to my torrents thankyou.

/Skull and crossbones because the industry have been a bunch of pirates for years.