RSSNapster will slash its subscription fees
By Tim Conneally | Published May 18, 2009, 2:58 PM
After nearly six years as a subscription-based service, Napster will make its library of over 7 million tracks available tomorrow for as low as five dollars a month. In addition to unlimited streaming, users get to keep five DRM-free tracks per month, essentially making the streaming service, which formerly cost $12.95 per month, free.
Napster's leaked press release describes streaming as "CD Quality," and most MP3s available for download in the service are encoded at 256 kbps, but there are also tracks currently only available in 128 kbps. The bitrate of each individual track will be listed when purchasing.
The service includes 60 commercial-free radio stations with formats from Oldies to Electronica to an all Wu-Tang clan station and a station that plays only Christmas-themed Jazz. Napster also includes 1,400 built-in playlists, and playlists arranged according to Billboard chart rankings that go back as far as 50 years.
Microsoft has likewise been making an advertising push for its own subscription service, Zune Pass. Using the logic that at $1 per song, it would cost $30,000 to fill an iPod, Microsoft touts the practicality of a subscription service with unlimited consumption. During last year's holiday season, Microsoft began to let Zune Pass subscribers keep 10 DRM-free tracks per month as a part of the $14.99 subscription cost.
Interestingly, this is the exact same approach that Napster took in 2005 when it advertised Napster to Go during the Super Bowl in a slot called "Do the Math." That commercial said it would cost $10,000 to fill an iPod with $1 songs, when it would cost only $15 a month for unlimited streaming through Napster. Maybe with these updated figures, Napster's value proposition makes more sense.
![Napster's 2005 "Do The Math" campaign updated for 2009.](http://images.betanews.com/media/3292.jpg "Napster's 2005 "Do The Math" campaign updated for 2009.")
You could always use IsoHunt and fill your iPod for free.
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|so in real life: fill my iPod OR pay for college OR a down payment for a house. Hmmmmm..
is iTunes expensive?? Apple should give away the players..
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|So what happens when you stop paying the monthly fee? yeah, all that music is GONE. POOF! the Microsoft Zune subscription is outrageously expensive...$14.99 for ten songs...$1.50 per song from Microsoft. ouch. and that is if you can find 10 songs worth downloading a month...if you do not download ten, say you download five, that makes it $3.00 per song from Microsoft! OUCH!
14.99 * 12 months = $179.88 a year! One of the many reasons no one uses the Microsoft Zune.
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|You get 5 songs for free per month. DRM free.
$5 is very reasonable. It's still better than iPod's model.
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|That's a pretty important point here.
For $5 with Apple you get 5 songs (give or take with the new pricing scheme).
For $5 with Napster you get to keep 5 songs and you get unlimited streaming.
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|True, but the songs are at a lower quality. Neither 256 Kbps AAC or MP3 are CD-quality anyway but AAC is more efficient so the songs sound better. I use 256 Kbps mp3 simply for the car player..
I wonder how many ISPs will threaten to cut off streaming and how this will affect all services like Napster...or perhaps, it already has; therefore, the lower price.
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|$14.99 to own 10 songs, and get an unlimited amount of music on 3 Zunes at the same time (and 1 PC).
5 to own 5 songs, and get an unlimited amount of music on your PC.
99c or 1.29 for 1 song.
Are you SERIOUSLY arguing?
With your logic and math, to get the same number of tracks on itunes you're paying between 99c and 1.29 for non-drm tracks (am I right). @99c that's 118 a year. @1.29 that's 154 a year. I don't know about in betweens etc, I just know that there's variable pricing now. And that's for a measly 120 tracks of music. You get 120 tracks + fill your 3 zunes and 1 computer up once you keep your subscription going, for what? $60 to $24 more, OUCH is right, buddy.
The napster model is perfect for people who don't own or aren't interested in filling up their mp3 players. It basically replaces (to some extent), Pandora paid. You get to fill up on all the music you want, and keep the 5 you love the most at the end of the month.
Also, subscription music doesn't go 'poof' as people think. They're not deleted or removed, they simply can't be played because the license isn't renewed when you stop paying for the service. Once you start paying again, they're all re-activated for playing.
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|"They're not deleted or removed, they simply can't be played because the license isn't renewed when you stop paying for the service."
What is the difference...you can not play them without paying the Microsoft tax. if you only download one song a month that is $14.99 for a _single_ song! OUCH! With iTunes you can pick and choose what songs to download, and if you do not download any songs in a month, guess how much you pay? ZERO.
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|I love my napster subscription. I have a zune as well and I find the zune marketplace lacking in content. Anything is better then having to use iTunes.
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