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Napster Back to Being Free...Sort Of


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Yup, the download bad boy that started it all now lets you download stuff for free and listen to it five times each before you have to pay (gee, suspiciously like Weedshare, but without the grassroots marketing angle). You don't need to download any special players either, and it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

 

Maybe I'll check out the site and report back when I have a few minutes.

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Now that's pretty interesting.

 

I've been distressed lately by the sudden disappearance of a number of catalog items from my subscription service, MusicMatch... it made me nervous when they dropped the price to $5/mo from $9 but they kept adding things -- until the last month or two. Someone said EMI pulled out and I haven't confirmed that, but it's certainly possible, a bunch of artists up and vanished.

 

 

I'll have to check that out.

 

 

It's nice to be able to hear what folks are talking about -- particularly when it's something you're interested in but probably wouldn't want to shell for to get it in your personal collection.

 

 

UPDATE: Rats. The first artist I checked who had dropped from about 30 songs on MM On Demand to about 3, Art Brut, wasn't on Napster at all.

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Originally posted by MDLMUSIC

So couldn't you then just record the song to a tape player or some other type of recording device?


Then record it back on to the computer later?

 

 

Things like "stream ripper" applications have been around for a few years now and are a typical operating mode for many

 

So there's not even a need to go to ext hardware and some of them can record streams faster-than-realtime (the accellerate the rquests back to the server)

 

There are even vid stream rippers these days!

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I checked out the new Napster. The cool thing about the old pirate thieving Napster was that you could find almost EVERYTHING on it.

 

Now, like everything else...it's mostly new stuff. I want obscure stuff and oldies.

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i just checked out napster and did a few searches. one thing i noticed is that all tracks are 99 cents regardless of length. did a search for "in c" by terry riley and the "album" can be bought for $10 while the single track on the album can be bought for 99 cents.

 

so does it actually work that way? or is there some sort of catch along the way before actually purchasing? a lot of what i'd be interested in buying are classical music albums that often having fewer than 10 tracks for cd. so this might actually be an amazing deal . .

 

morepaul: i actually wanted to record the sound output stream of my computer to a wav file last week. i did it before but couldn't figure out how i did it. is this the sort of thing you're talking about? if so, what program would you use for this?

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I'm particularly partial to High Criteria's "Total Recorder"

 

but, admittedly, that may be more of an "I'm used to it" deal -- still, I do like the feature set and their upgrade model (and it's solid as a rock, even with larger recordings like >10 hrs)

 

There are quite a few these days -- if you search of "Stream Recorder" or "stream ripper" you should find a bunch

 

There is most likely freeware (Total Recorder was nominal cost and it's sort of a "lifetime" upgrade deal...which actually does happen!)

I've played around with some smaller apps that seemed to do OK, I can't remember their names offhand (but I suspect that area has homogenized, which is probably why no particular package stuck out)

 

I'd try a google search and maybe the advanced search (to screen for free license if that's an issue) on downloads.com

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Originally posted by MorePaul



Things like "stream ripper" applications have been around for a few years now and are a typical operating mode for many


So there's not even a need to go to ext hardware and some of them can record streams faster-than-realtime (the accellerate the rquests back to the server)


There are even vid stream rippers these days!

 

 

And there are LEGAL recorders that use analog audio that work under the provisions so-called "VCR doctrine" -- strictly for personal use, of course. ReplayMusic is one of them that works pretty well. It records analog streams into a handful of different mp3 bitrates -- but a nice 'value added' feature is that it attempts to tag the recordings, as well (and usually does a good job of it -- at least for some streams and broadcasts.)

 

 

__________

 

 

I have to say, though, that a good subscription service (as Music Match On Demand has mostly been) strikes me as an WORLDS BETTER DEAL than paying a buck a song or 10 bucks an album.

 

An on demand streaming service is FAR more convenient than looking for mp3s on your own hard drive(s) as a rule.

 

Buying media means you're typically locked into DRM-ready players. If you buy from iTunes store you have to use the iTunes player and an iPod portable. (Yes, yes, BritanyLips, you can buy the song(s), burn the lower-fi 128 kbps DRM-protected AAC onto a CD and then rip THAT into an even lower fi copy of a copy; I'm aware of that.)

 

If you buy from a WMA-selling store, you may have more options. MusicMatch's songs are at least considerably higher fi at 160 kbps average VBR WMA. And you can use MM Jukebox or WMP (or, I think, some other players with the right DRM plug-in) as well as a number of non-iPod portables. But it's still not as convenient as an unprotected mp3 or other file.

 

For $5 a month, I've been getting mostly very good access to higher fi media -- possibly STILL with a better selection than Napster's far more expensive on demand streaming service.

 

BUT -- because the tech consumer beat writers only respond to Apple -- and to a far lesser extent Napster -- it seems like almost no one knows about what HAS been a far superior service. (We'll see if they continue losing content or if this EMI thing was an anomaly.)

 

I know one thing -- if the 'subscription model' fails I will be ENORMOUSLY bummed out and I will blame the slackass media drones for only serving one master... and not the consumer.

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digital recoders aren't currently illegal (where things like Streambox got nailed is DMCA circumvention by working directly on Real Networks data streams - they RE'd the 'handshake' protocol. Funny thing is, when Real RE'd fairplay...) whereas recorders like Total Rec intercept the decoded stream

 

where an opposition would probably have to attack is contributory infringement as opposed to DMCA circumvention

 

but then we are back to to "substantial legal use"..one can legally record, for instance, public domain offerings, offerings released with redistribution permissions under cc or other owner license

 

[that's why injunctions tend to fail, there are "substantial legal uses" for certain technologies -- like the "usher" P2P debacle a few years back. On a funny note, High Criterea's "enterprise app" is court reporting recording apps]

 

It's kind of in interesting cultural deal that the distro technology often gets directly associated with certain activities...

 

When one hears "torrenting" they often think "Ah, piracy" -- yet things like www.legal-torrents.com exist and one can certainly release one's own work or PD work through such a system

 

----

 

IIRC, in Sony v Universal (and we may all want to go back and review that one...it was a close decision and there were some specifics that may not universally apply across applications)

was that there was discussion about the intent to archive vs opposed to time-shift for convenience of viewing -- which could alter the outcome in use cases (as opposed to contributory infringement by producing such a device)

 

 

 

 

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Definitely interesting times with copyright law (patent guys generally hate it b/c it's kinda mushy ;) )

 

how far can one go with 'contributory' behavior or in some cases when is it 'inducement'?

 

How do we allow for "legit use" in the face of "substantial infringing use"?

 

How do we deal with the characteristic of current digital technology where a "copy" of the work may be held in memory in order to allow display (this can go beyond piracy and culd potentially affect even things such as the strict liability in child pornography)

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