http://www.downhillbattle.org/napster/

I actually gave Napster 2 a test run. They came a milimeter away from havin a good median between stealin from the artists and letting the record companies rip us off... but not quite.

1. They str8 up lied in the advertising. It stated that the monthly service for $10 a month you would have unlimited downloads from their collection of over 500,000 songs. BULLSHIT! certain tracks on many albums are "Buy Only" tracks where you cant listen to them unless you pay 99 cents a piece. Also most new or very popular albums are completely buy only.

2. They also don't tell you that if you download using the subscription service you have to keep the files on the PC you downloaded them to. This type of restriction is implimented by using secure WMA files encrypted with DRM technology. So far this technology is uncrackable (Give it a week). Which brings me to my next point.

3. All the files are WMA format. You can't use them with your iPod or other mp3 players that dont use WMA format. Why wouldn't your software be compatible with the most popular mp3 player in the world? This is just plain retarded.

4. The biggest downfall... if you cancel your subscription, you're free mp3s don't work anymore. This is the most rediculous shit I've ever heard!

5. This is a price issue. 99 cents a track is REDICULOUS! If you want to make a comilation cd it would cost around $17. Thats just stupid. They also have whole album purchases for $10 which is still way too high considering you can go to Target when the cd releases and pay $8-$11 for the whole cd with the case and cover. So for me, the per track purchasing is out of the question.

Ok, the first complaint is a false advertisement issue only. If they didn't promise it, I woulldnt expect it. I knew that sounded too good to be true, and I understand that a new release shouldn't be free. But it's rediculous for a 5 year old cd to have buy only tracks. And the rest of the stuff will be worked around in about a week and won't be an issue anymore, but you shouldn't have to steal your own files off your own fuckin computer.

But there are a lot of upsides to the service if the problems are dealt with.

1. Its legal so the IRAA can eat a dick

2. The downloads are ALWAYS exremely fast. On a cable modem the average download time for a track is about 20 seconds. And It downloads 2 tracks at once.

3. The sound quality on downloads is a 10 out of 10. That is one upside to the WMA files. The quality is lossless.

4. You don't have to download songs to listen to them. You can select any track (except buy only tracks) to put in a play list and stream them from the server. The quality for Cable speed streaming is excellent. It's not as good as downloading, but its more than good enough to listen to.

5. There is also a radio function where the tracks are put in a playlist and u can scroll through them at will. You can also choose to download these tracks if you want one.

6. Napster 2 can also be used as a Windows Media Player plugin so you can sort through your tracks easily without running the software.

7. There are extensive bios and discographies on most artists with tracks on the service. They also include album art and photos.

8. The napster software can minimize into a player at the bottom of the screen where u can skip thru tracks, adjust the volume, and select different playlists and radio stations. It also shows what track is playing and what track will play next.

So my overall opinion is that they have a damn good idea and a good start at making a service worth having, but they also have a couple minor things that completely turn me off from using it. I'm sure I'll feel a lot better about it once someone figures out a way around the secure WMAs, which should take only a couple weeks. But as I said before... we shouldn't have steal our own music. So this is 2 steps forward and one step back.

__________________
<center><img src="http://www.rapbattles.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=5068&stc=1"><p>Featuring Splivit Jams Artists: OpeY, Mystah Biggs, Chassis, July, Grimes<p>...and Pills the Doughboy, Kronik, Nimrod, Papi Stores, Young Cell, Skillz, Tony Ccino, Cin Laden, Cel Spit Fire, Clockwork <br>...Plus Many More...</center>