The Controversial Napster
Written: Nov 10 '00 (Updated Nov 17 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Download music for free. A great place to find rare music.
Cons: Can't continue downloading after a disconnect, much controversy over the use of this site.
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| Gr8ful's Full Review: Napster |
I recently decided to download the Napster software and join in one of the most controversial web sites on the Internet. I only joined the Napster community to try to find a particular song that I have had a lot of trouble finding but after I started downloading music, I just couldn't stop. I guess it is partially the thrill of finding rare music that I thought I wouldn't find but I am hopelessly addicted to the Napster phenomena now.
For those of you who have yet to try Napster, it is a real simple idea really. You can search for music like other MP3 sites but that is where the similarity ends. You are actually searching through music on other users computers and downloading directly from them not from a web server. At the same time, users can download music from your computer if you are sharing your music. This has it's ups and downs but for the most part I have had good luck finding the rare music I have been looking for.
The Good
One good thing is you can pick the user you want to download from and view their connection speed and strength. This means if one user who has a song you want on a 28.800 connection and another has the same song on a DSL connection you could choose the one with DSL. Also choosing a user with a good ping is important so you don't loose the connection.
You can add users to your "Hot List". The Hot List is your personal choice of users to download from. If you find a user with good connection and ping, you add them to your Hot List so that you can see when they are online and available for downloading.
When searching, you can limit the number of results set to any number you choose. I usually stick with the default 100 results. I have never had to broaden that number to find a user with good connection to download a song title from.
You can chat and send messages to other users. I have not yet used this feature but it is a good feature if you want to contact other users for information or if you are downloading a really large file and have a slower connection, you can ask them to stay connected until you are finished.
The Bad
You do not always connect to the same server. This means if a user on your Hot List is online but not on the same server as you, you won't know that user is online and their music will be unavailable to you. But this is an opportunity to search other users libraries as well.
I have found that if you have a slower connection (like I do) some users will abort your transfer if you are trying to download a large file. Not many do this but some will. I have also discovered that many users with fast connections will show that they have a 14.400 connection (slow connection) so users will not try to download from them. When you are downloading several files on a fast connection, it takes longer to download each file because the bandwidth is shared among each file downloading. So some users with high speed connections will download five or six files at a time. When they do this they don't want to have their bandwidth shared with uploading to another user so that's one reason they show themselves as a slow connection.
If you are downloading a file and the user you are downloading from disconnects, you can't start where you left off. You have to start downloading all over again. Napster has an "Incomplete" folder for these aborted transfers, but I never save those files. I clean it out every day.
The Controversy
Some musicians are upset that people can download music for free and the artist gets no royalties for their work. It is true that until Napster, getting music online was touch and go and by no means a threat to the music industry. Napster changed all the rules and is under heavy persecution in the music industry.
The fact is no money is changing hands and who has the right to block information on the internet? I think that Napster should take some responsibility for the hit on the music industry but I don't believe the government should be able to shut them down either. After all, the musicians who are most outspoken against Napster are the ones who have made their fortune in the industry and Napster helps introduce new artists as well as promote rising musicians.
I am glad I discovered Napster before something happens to it. I have found music that I thought I would never be able to find. For example, I searched for a song called "Yakkity Axe" performed by Chet Atkins with Mark Knopfler. I lucked out and found a very rare live version that I didn't even know existed. I hope Napster is around for a long time, it is a great place to find rare music.
Recommended:
Yes
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