The Napster company had quite a rocky start as the location where music enthusiasts could find each other and, using Napster’s amazing technology, exchange their music collections over the Internet.   No money ever changed hands.  In a way, it was just like selling bootleg compact discs except that nobody made any income from it.  In fact, it was the free part of the model that perturbed the recording artists and record labels.  Eventually Napster settled with the recording industry, with a huge financial award.  They learned their lesson well enough to completely change their business model.

Napster, the same business that started as just a vehicle for peer-to-peer music exchanges, has now become the owner of the largest music catalog on the Internet, with over seven million titles.  While it is not free, as it was in the wild days of the early Internet, it is still an amazing bargain.  The site provides what is widely regarded as the greatest bargain for music fans with a three month introductory subscription and 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 the entire catalog’s of your favorite artists or, if you prefer, the entire albums of a variety of artists.  There are also over a thousand interactive, genre playlists.  They even have a streaming radio station.

The downloads you choose can be played on any MP3 compatible device, including Ipod, Zune and many others.  In fact, if your cell phone has this option, you can even carry the music you’ve downloaded from Napster on that, as well.

With your three month membership downloads, you receive unrestricted rights, so you can put your music onto your various players.  You can even burn a CD for yourself.

There is a huge list of musical genres.  If your tastes are similar to mine, you can choose from a lot of different genres, but if your tastes are more specific, you will certainly find your favorite genre.  Among those genres are rock, pop, classical, R&B, musical soundtracks, Christian, jazz, comedy, and the list goes on.

All of this is just $15 for the three months of delightful musical saturation at Napster.com.  Face it, that’s cheaper than a fast food lunch for three.

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Filed under: Classical Music

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