Napster - A Review of the latest features of Napster 3.7.2.6

The quantity of features in Napster are in general greater than any other music downloads service. With total focus of Roxio, its owner, it displays a formidable challenge to competing services.

Since you'll find so many features in this digital music downloads service, covering them would call for a separate site. On this page, we will highlight some of the many worthy points.

Napster's interface beats other competing services in terms of its "look" and "feel". Both are quite current. But how slick is it?

The best approach in answering this will to summarize the main features of the Napster downloads interface.

Let's start with the A search box - you'll find this on every page on the upper right. How easy is the search box tool? Well, let's, for simplicity's sake, compare it to that of iTunes.

Napster's search box is divided into five separate categories: "Artist", "Album", "Track", "Member", or "Library". The search box in iTunes is not divided. You can virtually type in anything, be it the artist or song, or album, without changing the category in iTunes without a problem.

Napster's on the other hand is not as "smart". If, for example, you type "Hollaback Girl" (by Gwen Stefani) in the "Artist" category by accident you will get this message: "The music you are looking for may be added soon". This is the case even if you type in both the artist and the song together (i.e, "Hollaback Girl Gwen Stefani") in any category. The long and short: you have to make sure you are at the right category and you must include ONLY the artist or ONLY the track or ONLY the album. No combinations.

Yes, of course all you have to do is ... voila! - change the category. But it can be a pain in the arse when you "forget" - I mean the less steps the better.

So what is the comeback for the Napster downloads search bar?

Well one of them is the following - sort of. When you search for a song in your "Library", you don't have to switch screens. You can type in the song after changing the category on the search bar tool to "Library", and the song that you requested from your own library catalog will appear.

With iTunes, you have to click on the Library, wait for the library catalog to appear, then search. Is this a big deal? Each route (Napster or iTunes) has its own neatness as you'll see. For example, for iTunes you can open up the Library catalog in a separate window - very convenient. Napster does not allow this.

The second great thing about Napster's search tool bar is something that has not been met by any other music downloads digital service. It has a "memory" for keyword, artist, song, etc. So if you want to search for Snoop Dogg again, you only have to type in one letter instead of all letters. Very convenient for one who does not like typing.

Yet, a third feature that is unique to the Napster downloads service is that you may search through another member's library.

Maybe you know someone who has the same taste in music as you, yet has a more extensive library. She may have some tracks in her library that could appeal to you, which you can then download or purchase for your own library.

How great is this feature? Well it helps to know the name of the Member in order for this option to be of any use. Remember, you are not engaging in peer-to-peer sharing so the names of other members are not so readily available and known.

Chart fanatic?

Well then we've got good news for you. Napster's charts selection, which includes virtually every major Billboard chart dating back to 1956, is the most comprehensive of any music downloads service on the planet.

Here's a rundown for you on how to use this incredible feature.

Click on "Browse", and you'll find this. Pick the type of chart from either Billboard or Napster, pick the year, eg. 2004, then pick the season (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall). Then it starts working, giving you all available tracks from every album ever to peak in that season, in order of peak position. So in other words, it gives you all albums that hit #1 in order of how many albums were sold up to now, all with their available tracks, followed by #2... all the way down to #200.

Is this useful for music downloads? We think so. It gives you a nice comprehensive list that's great far chart buffs and its great for settling arguments as to which song peaked where on what chart.

Great for singles and tracks charts. You can build a collection of a ton of songs ever to chart for any single year, even every single year, for less than the cost of buying a CD in your favorite record store! Now, how cool is that?

The charts feature is still very informative for albums, although it can be quite cumbersome since all the tracks are listed from each album. That said, you can download tracks from 1000's of albums ever to chart on Billboard's album chart for free or for very cheap.

What it needs: An artist or song search. It would be interesting, for example, to show the peak positions of every track by Green Day to climb the modern rock tracks chart without having to consult Joel Whitburn.

Bottom Line? The best of any service. iTunes does have a chart option as well, however there are only three charts (sorry, can't list them - possible copyright violation) all being the three most popular track charts. No album charts. There are some advantages for the iTunes chart, though. But, the verdict? Into chart stats, for any season for any year back to 1956? Only one service to choose: Napster.

In addition, you can also check out Napster's own charts, although many digital services have their own charts.

New Album Releases/ Just Added Feature

The New Album Release feature lists all new releases added to the Napster catalog for the most recent three Tuesdays (the day the new releases hit stores). In comparison, iTunes' equivalent feature goes back four Tuesdays. For iTunes, the releases are also alphabetized; Napster's are not. You will also less new releases in Napster's list than iTunes.

Napster does make up for this, however, by providing not only album cover pics of every release, but links from these albums for quick and easy downloads. iTunes does not do this for most new releases on their respective page.

The Just Added Feature lists all the artists who have had at least one recording added to their playlist in the past week, 2 weeks, etc. any interval that you choose, up to a 1000 days. A similar feature is not available in iTunes.

Bottom Line? ummm...If you're a true music fan, this feature will be somewhat redundant. Wouldn't typing in the artist or song be easier? Okay...that aside, what if you're lazy? That is, instead of typing in the artists or songs that you think have made it to their catalog that week or last week, etc., you can use the Just Added Feature - and it lists the artists all at once.

The bottom line then would be that this is a another feature just to add to the package. Oh well, if they didn't a comprehensive package, then they would be inferior to other leading edge services. Tit for tat, hmm?

CD compilations

These compilations are entirely designed by and are exclusive to Napster. Some are good, some great, and some not-so-great. The compilations range from those with well-known hits, such as The Hit List v.1 to Hip Hop compilations (four of them), Going To The Chapel (a must for newlyweds), a Solo Piano collection of European Classical Music from famous composers of the 17th to 19th centuries, Country compilations, Dance compilations, compilations of a certain artists favorite tunes... literally dozens of these exclusive compilations exist for you to check out.

Napster radio:

50 commercial-free stations abound with Napster in many different genres. Having stations in a general sense is not unique from some other reputable music downloads services. In fact, Rhapsody has more at 120.

How are the "stations"? Let's clear up something. These stations do not provide live streaming (this is a good thing). And you get to view the entire playlist before the songs play. When they play, you can skip, repeat, do all the things you would normally do with a normal playlist. Anyway, the genres are quite diverse and do not necessarily contain the most popular songs on traditional radio, although several of them abound.

What Napster does allow you to do - and this is cool - is design your own custom radio station. You create the playlist of three or more songs, and then the songs will play like they were on a radio station. Rhapsody has this feature, too, but what Rhapsody does not have is a way that you can "capture" a song playing from an existing radio playlist, and then at it to your customized list.

One word of caution, though: uncensored. ...unlike a traditional radio station. This only applies to a minute fraction of tracks, fortunately.

Community Features:

Although this is not getting as much of a vibe than the its outlawed predecessor (not as many "new" Napster users - yet), the new Napster's community features are the best out of all the music downloads services.

The topics in the Message Boards range from Napster To Go to different genres to different schools that have associated with Napster to create a legal music downloading environment.

Although the majority of posters in the Napster Message Boards appear clueless, there are a few "brains" who can help you out with their priceless tutelage. This is especially in the case of Napster To Go which is still in the primary stage. So therefore, there will be several problems encountered with it regarding compatible mp3 players, firmware, etc.

Gift certificates, cards, promo codes:

You'll find them available in a la carte track packs, with 15, 25 and 50 tracks packs. The gift certificates deal with subscriptions. They come in a one-month, three-month, and one-year subscriptions. Redeeming them is very easy and involves not much more than typing in your promo code. Supposedly they make a great gift, but what do you do when it expires? Beg your relative for another gift? Or fork out some money on your own? You gotta hate it when that time comes, but it is still a nice thought.

Rewind, Fast Forward Features:

These features, unique to Napster, deal with music and artists of the past and future respectively. How is this feature? Well, you'll find only one artist featured in each. You might find the Fast Forward part more helpful than the past part since the artist featured there will probably not be as celebrated as the one in Rewind. Either way, the artists featured in either are usually very worthy of a listen, so do so.

Napster Links

This is the latest feature included in version 3.7.2.6. This allows you to place a link on your website, blog, MySpace page, or even an e-mail.

After typing in the name of the artist, album, or track, a results page will then display. Simply click on a track and it will create a link that you can display on your message or page! You can even create a Wiki link that is compatible with Wikipedia pages.

2 million tracks for $10 per month

Napster's selection is currently over 2,000,000 legal music downloads and counting. The download speeds and effectiveness are streets better than the good ol' version. The vastly improved Napster 3.0 was launched in early 2005, with Napster 3.5 following in the Fall of that year. The latest version contains multitude of new features, some of which you may find above.

There is a free 7-day trial for the Napster downloads service. Following this trial period there is a $9.95 monthly subscription fee ($14.95 for the Napster To Go feature). This is a month-to-month fee.

With Napster you can download as many songs as you wish, so long you keep your subscription in tact. For most these music downloads you don't pay an additional fee per song. Some songs, however, are an additional 99 cents to download.

For those songs downloaded via Premium without the additional 99 cent fee, there is a 99 cent charge for each song you burn onto a CD. This does not apply to streaming tunes - you can get five streams per month; this pales in comparison to Rhapsody's 25. For Napster downloads you paid 99 cents each to download there is no additional charge for each song you burn.

Although you can cancel the subscription at any time - even before the trial period ends - alot of subscribers are so fascinated by the new Napster downloads service that they continue for several months since it is cost-effective. Another reason deals with their "Napster To Go" service which allows you to play your Napster music downloads on compatible portable mp3 players such as iRivers, Creative Zen and Dell, but not Apple's iPod devices (only iTunes music downloads are compatible with those).

You can cancel the subscription at any time and cancellation is very easy. Upon cancellation you get the iTunes-equivalent Napster Light service.
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