# Napster, I am disappointed. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 10, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863 "2005-03-10T17:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/1 "2005-03-10T17:20:11Z")
So fuck you. I see your damn spots on the TV every 10 minutes telling me that I can try your monkey-ass service for free for 10 days. I go to your website touting “So much music you’ll vomit ta’s and ti-ti’s!” I sign up with PayPal like a good little sheep eagerly awaiting my free music. I download, like, 50 songs. Then I try to play them in Winamp, my prefered music player. They won’t open. I try them in WMP. Eureka! Now I’m suspicious. In your forums I am told, with cheery little smilies, that it’s just like paying for some service like XM. I can hear the music as long as I keep ponying up the cash every month. I can’t burn them, I can’t put them on an MP3 player unless I pay for them seperately from my subscription fee. So I cancelled your puss oozing, disease-ridden, rotting, lying, hairy ass. I’m gonna tell all my friends. I’m gonna tell my girlfriend _not_ get that iPod for her brother so he can download all that wonderful free music. In short, I’m a bit disappointed. And I just got an email from Napster telling me that they are sorry to see me go. At the end it says: “Click here to launch Napster.” Click here to go fuck yourself, Napster. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/2 "2005-03-10T17:27:32Z")
unfortunately, that was sort of the entire point of the service. You get all the songs you want for $15/mo, but you lose them when you cancel. Pay $1 per song, and you get to keep them forever. Their thought is that it’s cheaper to pay $15/mo than pay thousands for songs $1 at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/3 "2005-03-10T17:41:51Z")
I don’t see what’s the problem here. Where did Napster lie? When they said that you could download tracks, did they say that you would be able to do whatever you wished with them? More importantly: Did you read what you were signing up for? At least you _didn’t pay anything_. I’m against intellectual property, but I can’t see where Napster deserves any vitriol ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/4 "2005-03-10T18:26:39Z")
\ I find it very disturbing that the first two posts to this thread were by **Cheesesteak** and **Cheese Monster**. Cheeses! \ ---
**Author:** ![My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/5 "2005-03-10T18:44:52Z")
See, that’s the thing. When I download something I guess I expect to keep it. As far as I could see, they didn’t say anything about the songs expiring until after I signed up. Time is money, man. Some people seem to think that they are getting a deal, but I just don’t see the appeal. You are just renting songs. Why is that a good thing? ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/6 "2005-03-10T19:10:41Z")
Well, there are ways around this, of course. Not that I’m gonna go into them here cause I don’t need the mods to tear me a new one. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/7 "2005-03-10T19:15:52Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > You get all the songs you want for $15/mo, but you lose them when you cancel. This is why the new Napster model won’t work in the long run. Renting music? Please. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/8 "2005-03-10T19:49:59Z")
> [@My Darn Snake Legs](#): > > Some people seem to think that they are getting a deal, but I just don’t see the appeal. You are just renting songs. Why is that a good thing? The folks I’ve heard who say they like it tend to go along the lines of, “I like to listenn to X hundreds/thousands/millions of different songs a month, so a subscription’s cheaper.” Which makes sense, I suppose, if your tastes are so fleeting, but you could turn on the radio and get the same effect for less. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/9 "2005-03-10T20:02:25Z")
I think the biggest problem will come along a year down the road, when you have a couple of thousand songs downloaded and someone comes out with another subscription that’s $7 instead of $15. If you switch, you have to start your collection all over again. The iPod comparison ad ($10,000 vs $15/mo) looks good, but who would want to download all that stuff over again? ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/10 "2005-03-10T20:03:28Z")
> [@My Darn Snake Legs](#): > > I’m gonna tell all my friends. I’m gonna tell my girlfriend _not_ get that iPod for her brother so he can download all that wonderful free music. Well, the iTunes service (which supposedly works best with the iPod) is supposed to be excellent, and $1 per song is a bargain if you don’t think it’s worth paying $12-18 for CDs that may only have one or two good songs. Plus, the convenience of uploading your entire existing music collection to the iPod is a major selling point. Don’t give up on mp3 players just because of Napster’s stupid music-rental policy. In the end, iTunes will definitely win the music downloading war. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/11 "2005-03-10T20:04:18Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > \ > I find it very disturbing that the first two posts to this thread were by **Cheesesteak** and **Cheese Monster**. Cheeses! > \ Just wait, we may yet hear from \*\*Cheese Head \*\* or **Cheeseybloke** or **Cheesehead** or or \*\*Cheeses Priced \*\* or **floating cheese** or **The Big Cheese** or **CheeseWhiz** or \*\*HeadCheese \*\* or \*\*owlofcreamcheese \*\* or **American Cheese** or **SurrealCheese** or **MayorMcCheese** or **chococheese** or **cheesetoe** or **OneCheeseWith** or **cheese** or **The Cheese** or **cheesepickles** or **Gen.McCheese** or **flexcheese** or \*\*Buffy the Cheese \*\* or **cheeseyballs** or \*\*BLUE CHEESE \*\* or **High Cheese** or \*\*Cheesewhizrox \*\*. Did I leave anybody out? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/12 "2005-03-10T20:14:22Z")
> [@My Darn Snake Legs](#): > > I can’t put them on an MP3 player unless I pay for them seperately from my subscription fee. WTF? They show a MP3 player in the ad! You mean that you really can’t do what the ad is implying you can do? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/13 "2005-03-10T20:33:35Z")
You can put them on SOME mp3 players - there’s a list at the website of mp3 players that are compatible with the service. They work on my iRiver. For me, it is worth it. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/14 "2005-03-10T20:39:01Z")
**TellMeI’mNotCrazy** do you know if you stop subscribing to the service your songs will no longer work for the iriver? I have an iriver and I don’t see how it can know I have stopped being a subscriber. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/15 "2005-03-10T20:41:06Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > Well, the iTunes service (which supposedly works best with the iPod) is supposed to be excellent Happy iTunes Music Store customer here. 🙂 Note that you can download iTunes (the jukebox program and storefront) for free, browse the online store for free, and even download songs for free – Apple makes a free song available every week, or you can go drink some Pepsi/Mountain Dew and get one of those “win a free song” bottlecap codes. There’s literally no obstacle in trying out the store. ---
**Author:** ![sperfur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9adbd/32.png) [@sperfur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sperfur)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/16 "2005-03-10T21:17:59Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Just wait, we may yet hear from \*\*Cheese Head \*\* or **Cheeseybloke** or **Cheesehead** or or \*\*Cheeses Priced \*\* or **floating cheese** or **The Big Cheese** or **CheeseWhiz** or \*\*HeadCheese \*\* or \*\*owlofcreamcheese \*\* or **American Cheese** or **SurrealCheese** or **MayorMcCheese** or **chococheese** or **cheesetoe** or **OneCheeseWith** or **cheese** or **The Cheese** or **cheesepickles** or **Gen.McCheese** or **flexcheese** or \*\*Buffy the Cheese \*\* or **cheeseyballs** or \*\*BLUE CHEESE \*\* or **High Cheese** or \*\*Cheesewhizrox \*\*. > > Did I leave anybody out? Giraffe? ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/17 "2005-03-10T21:21:31Z")
I don’t know how it works, but yes, they will stop working. I had a brief lapse between my trial running out and signing up for the paid service (about 2 weeks) and eventually the songs just stopped working. I imagine it’s just some DRM software embedded in the player that works with the Napster DRM, which would explain why only certain mp3 players work with the service. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/18 "2005-03-10T21:35:25Z")
To clarify a little, the songs expire after (I think) 30 days. If you don’t connect your player to your computer at least once a month, the licenses won’t get renewed. It’s not a matter of the player knowing that you haven’t renewed - it’s more a case of the player having gotten no information indicating that you have. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/19 "2005-03-10T21:35:29Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Just wait, we may yet hear from \*\*Cheese Head \*\* or **Cheeseybloke** or **Cheesehead** or or \*\*Cheeses Priced \*\* or **floating cheese** or **The Big Cheese** or **CheeseWhiz** or \*\*HeadCheese \*\* or \*\*owlofcreamcheese \*\* or **American Cheese** or **SurrealCheese** or **MayorMcCheese** or **chococheese** or **cheesetoe** or **OneCheeseWith** or **cheese** or **The Cheese** or **cheesepickles** or **Gen.McCheese** or **flexcheese** or \*\*Buffy the Cheese \*\* or **cheeseyballs** or \*\*BLUE CHEESE \*\* or **High Cheese** or \*\*Cheesewhizrox \*\*. Blessed are the cheesemakers. ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863/20 "2005-03-10T21:41:01Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > Blessed are the cheesemakers. What’s so special about the cheesemakers? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/napster-i-am-disappointed/293863.md?page=2)