Broadband and Cell Phones Have Become Our Avenues to Constant Music
Ah, the modern age… Through most of the last century can you imagine what would have happened to some poor guy who speculated that someday we would use the same instrument to call our business colleagues and play our favorite music. Of course, almost all new mobile phones can do that and much more.
Imagine trying to explain the Internet to someone as recently as the 1970′s. I tried…unsuccessfully. Furthermore, as late as the early part of the last decade of the twentieth century, our current Internet speed would have seemed more of a distant hope than a short term reality. Yet, today, most of us connect using broadband services. High quality streaming music to our computers has moved well beyond the pipe dream stage long ago–well, I guess, it hasn’t really been all that long.
The Napster company had quite a rocky start as a place where music lovers could find each other and, using the Napster software, trade their music over the Internet. No money ever changed hands. In a way, it was just like selling illegal bootleg CDs except that nobody made any income from it. In fact it was the free part of the model that bothered the recording artists and record labels. Eventually Napster settled with the recording industry, with a huge financial settlement at Napster’s expense. They learned their lesson well enough to completely change their business model.
Napster, started as a free trading music set, but it has transformed itself into the holder of the largest music catalog on the entire Internet–over seven million titles and still growing. It is still a terrific bargain, even though it is no longer free in the days when it was in hot water with the music industry. The site provides what is widely regarded as the greatest bargain for music fans with a three month introductory subscription, with renewals at the same low rates. Three months will give you a good sense of what the service has to offer, and I strongly suspect that you’ll decide to renew. A lot of people have maintained a membership for years.
For a remarkably low price, you receive five download credits and special bonus download credits as a subscription bonus. Included in the plan is the reason that most people subscribe in the first place–unlimited (!) streaming music. You can listen to entire albums or even the entire catalog of their various artists of your favorites. They have over a thousand pre-made mix lists, and those are interactive. They even have a streaming radio station.
The music that you select to download as part of your subscription can be played on any MP3 device, including Ipod, Zune and many others. In fact, if you cell phone has this option, you can even carry the music you’ve downloaded from Napster on that, as well.
You have unrestricted rights to these recordings, so you can move them around to different devices that you own. You can even use your software to create your own compact disc.
Any musical genre you can think of is well represented. I’m sure you’ll find your favorite on the list, unless you are like me and listen to music from a wide variety of genres. The list is huge, but a few of the genres are jazz, pop, rock, Christian, children, comedy, country and the list goes on….
All of this is just $15 for the three months of delightful musical saturation at Napster.com. Where can you find that much pleasure at that price?