Napster: Yep, Yet Another Useful Opinion!
Written: Sep 22 '00 (Updated Apr 01 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Find new music, find obscure music you thought you'd never hear again
Cons: Songs often download incomplete and you also have to wrestle with ethics
The Bottom Line: Great!
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| _Cassandra_'s Full Review: Napster |
Seeing as how I have quite strong opinions and interest in Napster as a law- and ethics- shaping entity, I thought I might as well give my take on the actual software too.
If you haven't heard of Napster, where've you been hiding? Months ago when I first got Napster I was amazed that some of my super-techy-geeky friends hadn't come across it and got me onto it a lot early even then! I was impressed with the simplicity of the program, and how easy it was to install, register and get started.
How it looks. I guess I'm often impressed with the GUI of a piece of software, and though Napster is quite boring and functional to look at, it works fine. Does the job, so I'm happy, doesn't confuse in any way. It would be better if it was customisable/skinable, but I doubt these guys are going to be spending any more money in development until they see if they have any to spend after the trial!
How it works. Pretty straightforward to me - Napster connects you as an individual to one of their central servers, (which you do not have a choice about, incidentally) and once connected, you switch to the search page and look for files which are shared by other individuals connected at the same time. The server holds no files, just the information about who has which file: call it an mp3 matchmaking service! As it recognises only mp3 file format, it's nice and specialised. And the searching is remarkably accurate, even without using any Booleans. From there its just a double click or button click to download the song to your hard drive, direct from the user which has the file you want. Easy peasy!
Tips
Configure Napster before you start downloading. You can just dive right in and get into the searching & downloading right away, but I recommend hand picking which directories you want available for viewing before you connect. You may have files in all kinds of places for work or part of software that you may not even know about. Be sure to only share files you want to share. Pretty basic but easily overlooked in your zeal to get started.
Narrow your search if you are looking for a popular item. You'll achieve much better download speeds if you don't download from anyone with a slower connection than you. Go for the T1's and T3's where you can. Of course, if you are looking for a rare item then open your search up to all speed connections: better to get it slow than not get it at all!
Check out other files from users with the hot list. If you find users with files that you like, add them to your hot list and see what else they might have that you might like. I have discovered many artists I'd never heard of this way - in fact I'd say that this is Napsters' greatest strength and biggest argument to counter the anti-copyright argument. When introducing individuals to new music that they may never have otherwise come across, how can this be a bad thing for album sales? A good percentage of people using Napster say they do end up buying the CDs or seeing live the bands that they are introduced to. And I'm one of them!!
Get Napigator. Napigator is a companion program which allows you to choose which server you connect to both on the Napster network, and on OpenNap and other servers which use the Napster program, but are not supported by Napster. If you are looking for a file and not having a lot of luck, you might want to try different servers. Personally, I have found the Napster servers to be the best, but they may not be around for much longer, and Napigator and the other OpenNap servers have nothing to do with Napster so probably will continue to operate clandestinely.
Be Patient. It's fairly obvious that connections get cut on a regular basis and not everyone will have that hard to find no longer in print song you are trying to find. You may have try try repeatedly at different times of the day and with different users to get whole songs. Also, I recommend downloading to a directory which you don't share as you will likely get quite a few incomplete songs, and it's polite not redistribute incomplete songs (think how annoyed you'll be when you download what you think is a whole song, just to find it's missing the last 23 seconds.)
Well, I think that's about it for my blurb on the wonderful world of Napster, except to say that if you'd like to know more about my views on the Napster vs. RIAA issue, you can read my Editorial at:
http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-63ED-4E5675A-39C9EE14-prod5
Cheers!
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Also, an Easter Egg for those interested: I've been busy designing Operator Logos for my new mobile phone, the Siemens SL45, and I have designed a logo featuring Napster to tie in with this review!
To download the logo, go to the following URL:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~prophecy/sl45/n127r.htm
If you have any technical queries or would like to see all my logo designs, take a lookie here:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~prophecy/sl45/sl45operatorlogos.htm
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
_Cassandra_
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Location: Perth, Western Australia
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 30 members
About Me:
Designer and Filmmaker - and an artist in many guises.
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