Napster relaunching, again: $5 per month streaming plus five free downloads

Like subscription music services? You know, like Microsoft's Zune Pass where you pay $14.99 monthly and keep up to 10 tracks each month forever. Sure, renting music at $180 per year can be a drag for those stuck in a Classic Rock phase, but for those who like to explore, what if we told you that Napster was about to cut that price to $60 per year and let you keep a handful of tracks forever on the side? Well, it's true. Starting tonight, Napster will unleash its new $5 per month deal that gives subscribers unlimited, on-demand streaming access to Napster's full library of music stuffed with 7 million tracks from major and independent publishers. To sweeten the deal, Best Buy's music service will even let you keep up to five unrestricted "CD quality" MP3 tracks each month. Honestly, what's keeping you? Wouldn't you rather have this than a $5 Mocha Frappuccino? Full press release after the break.

Napster Unveils Latest Digital Music Service

Napster Offers MP3s With its Popular On-Demand Streaming Service for One Low Monthly Price

LOS ANGELES – MAY 19, 2009 – Napster, the pioneer of digital music, today unveiled its latest music offering combining the freedom of MP3s with the discovery benefits of a high-quality streaming music service – all for one low price. For as little as $5 per month, Napster users get five unrestricted MP3 downloads, and unlimited access to Napster's award-winning on-demand music streaming service.

Music fans now have the best of both worlds: MP3s to keep forever, play, transfer and burn as much as they like, as well as unlimited music listening from Napster's catalog of more than seven million tracks. "There's no need to settle for 30-second clips to decide if you want to buy a song," said Chris Gorog, CEO of Napster. "For five bucks now you can have access to our entire music catalog and get five MP3s to add to your permanent collection."

Napster users can now:

• Get five MP3s each month to download, with their choice of songs from the Napster MP3 library that covers all types of music from all the major labels and includes the largest catalog of independent artists available.
• Listen to any track, as often as they like, in CD quality from Napster's catalog of more than seven million songs.
• Choose from more than 60 commercial-free radio stations and more than 1,400 expertly programmed playlists.
• Discover new music and artists through personalized recommendation tools.
• Enjoy the top hits from more than 50 years of Billboard charts. Want to know what was popular when you graduated high school? Now you can.
• Play MP3s on any MP3 player, including iPod®, iPhone® and music-enabled MP3 mobile phones.

"A decade ago, Napster revolutionized the way people discovered and enjoyed music," said Julie Owen, senior vice president of entertainment for Best Buy. "The brand that started it all is shaking things up again with this new service that provides music lovers continued access to the entertainment experience they've come to expect of Napster and Best Buy."

The new Napster offering is now available for U.S. residents at www.napster.com.

[Mitch @ May 18th 2009 4:11AM]

Good to see the subscription price going down, but not so good that you can't take your music anywhere.

[SteveBirk @ May 18th 2009 8:04AM]

exactly. it says unlimited streaming. I can't put all the music onto my zune and take it places. to me zune pass seems like a better deal.

[wagon @ May 18th 2009 9:16AM]

not to mention, keeping 5 tracks a month? unless you are exclusively looking at EPs, how are you supposed to d/l a full album?

seems like this is a perfect solution for the 16-year-old with a credit card who wants to listen to the new Kayne single over and over again...not for me.

[AJ in the East Bay @ May 18th 2009 4:08PM]

@wagon: "keeping 5 tracks a month? unless you are exclusively looking at EPs, how are you supposed to d/l a full album?"

Easy. You download the good songs one month and the crappy ones the next.

[uShak @ May 20th 2009 1:24AM]

I hope they will add mobile apps for cell phones at some point to fix that. i doubt apple would approve on a napster app, but maybe windows marketplace?

[J. Baker @ May 18th 2009 4:12AM]

Spotify ftw

Napster is gone once Spotfiy reaches the US.

[ScooterDe @ May 18th 2009 4:07PM]

Grooveshark.com is the same thing, and is based in Florida. Hard to beat free.

[Nedakh @ May 18th 2009 4:18AM]

Now if only MS would drop Zune Pass down to $5 or so.

[Daza @ May 18th 2009 4:31AM]

Well the Zune Pass lets you sync up with 3 Zune's so if you've got a bunch of mates with Zune's you could just split the bill. And before anyone says they don't know anyone with Zune's, I don't even live in the U.S. or Canada and in my group of friends I know 5 people with imported Zune's..

$14.99 USD for 3 Zune's is a great deal.

[Tom @ May 18th 2009 10:08AM]

I believe Napster also supports up to 3 PCs and 3 portable music devices.

[Platinum_Skeet @ May 18th 2009 10:33AM]

But Napster doesn't allow you to download unlimited music does it?

[WixosTrix @ May 18th 2009 10:34AM]

it doesnt matter how many devices u can use napster on, the deal breaker between it and zune pass is that u cannot download anything but the 5 free

[Mike @ May 18th 2009 10:49AM]

I'm pretty sure you can take those subscription songs with you on a Napster-DRM-compatible player, but the press release doesn't explicitly say this. If this is true, then it's a better deal than the ZunePass ($5 unlimited streaming + 5 free MP3s vs. $15 unlimited streaming, no free MP3s). If not, then it's up to you to decide which is a better deal, but it'd seem pretty silly for Napster to restrict streaming to only your PC.

By the way, I notice a lot of fanboy brand wars going on here. Boy, lots of people sure do love their company of choice, don't they?

[gar3 @ May 18th 2009 12:44PM]

[cue Helen Reddy]

"I am woman, hear me roar."

[pmow @ May 18th 2009 1:09PM]

The normal subscription offers the Zune-type plan. As a bonus, you don't have to have a Zune to use it. Any Windows Mobile phone, or MS DRM DAP will work. It will also sync with up to three computers, and five devices (last time I checked).

[Ordeith @ May 18th 2009 2:12PM]

@mike

Zunepass, that is $15 unlimited streaming, unlimited downloading to Zune and PCs, unlimited listening to said downloads on Zune/PC/Xbox, and 10 free MP3 downloads a month.

[ripslymemc @ May 18th 2009 2:31PM]

fifteen dollars to three zunes? hook it up!

[Gilbert Tang @ May 18th 2009 4:18AM]

I'd rather have this than a $.50 Mocha Frappuccino.

[Dach @ May 18th 2009 4:19AM]

What's keeping me? The fact that it's just like Pandora, but for $5 a month, you get a "repeat" button, maybe?

[Gilbert Tang @ May 18th 2009 4:24AM]

Precisely.

[Rey @ May 18th 2009 4:28AM]

Can't keep songs from Pandora though, plus Pandora is random where Napster would be on demand

[edgore @ May 18th 2009 1:45PM]

While you are right about being able to play stuff on-demand on napster versus random for Pandora, from a price/free songs standpoint for $5.00 I can go out and buy *at least* five songs per month that I have heard on Pandora from iTunes or Amazon. And if I can't think of five songs I want to buy in a month it doesn't cost me anything...

[B @ May 19th 2009 6:52AM]

@Rey

Pandora, Seeqpod, and the like, cache the music to your computer, so you can copy the cache files and rename them to *.mp3.
If you're using Seeqpod, check your "\Document and Settings\..\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\..\Cache" folder.

[joemiddie13 @ May 18th 2009 4:22AM]

now only if you could play subscription music on an ipod

[baehler @ May 18th 2009 1:59PM]

Yep, give me an iPhone app and this is a done deal. But, Apple would never approve it.

[CGiboi @ May 18th 2009 4:24AM]

I'd go for the torrent downloads, thank you.

[MeowR- @ May 18th 2009 4:49AM]

Shhhh. We don't say those kind of things on public internets...

[Steve @ May 18th 2009 5:09AM]

Wow... bittorrent. You guys are so l33t.

[Prokanda @ May 18th 2009 7:51AM]

he didn't say "bittorrent" you tool. he's talking about torrents in general. bittorrent is a client/protocol both designed by the same guy.

bittorrent [the application] is a place you can go to purchase music and preview things. actual torrents out on the web however, come from a bunch of different sites. .torrent is the extension that the files use, just like avi or mpg.

how can you *have* the internet and not understand what a torrent is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol)

[Steve @ May 18th 2009 8:22AM]

@ Prokanda

Wow, so intense, so angry AND so anal?

Truly, you are the king of the internet.

[Prokanda @ May 18th 2009 8:40AM]

I was just responding to his douche bag attitude in kind.

But yeah, it does frustrate me when someone gets an attitude brought on by *their* lack of knowledge on a topic.

But YOU.. you're so amazing, it must have been such a trial getting on here and commenting just to show me how much you dislike what I said. My comment must have left such a bad taste in your mouth. So sorry for that. >.>

[Peter Moore @ May 18th 2009 11:44AM]

Wow. You're a dick.

[NickNick @ May 18th 2009 3:14PM]

lols e-drama.
now now people, settle your differences and lets all have a group hug.

[MarkHawk @ May 18th 2009 4:26AM]

Can you transfer the songs to a device? Otherwise Im sticking with my Zune Pass and 10 free songs.

[Rey @ May 18th 2009 4:27AM]

It's not free if you're paying for the service

[Steve @ May 18th 2009 5:12AM]

@ Rey:

Actually, it is technically free. The price of the Zune Pass never changed; they simply expanded the benefits. I guess you can say that the 10 free downloads are included in the price, but for the people who had the service the month before they enacted the policy, there was definitely an additional value added.

It's like Watch It Now with Netflix: I'm paying the same amount as I was before it existed, but I've gotten an additional service at the same price. From my perspective, Watch It Now was added for free...

[Tim @ May 18th 2009 10:54AM]

You can move the 5 songs you get to keep each month to any device you want...including your iPod.

[Rey @ May 18th 2009 4:30AM]

Is there any plan to stream Napster to the iPhone? It'd be the one thing I'd demand, their website is still showing $13 a month btw

[Mitch @ May 18th 2009 5:20AM]

You can demand it, but seriously, Apple wouldn't allow it.

[Jon @ May 18th 2009 11:54AM]

Time for a jailbroken app to be written...

[Ari Moshe @ May 18th 2009 4:34AM]

Interestingly enough, this is not currently available according to their site. It is mentioned nowhere. Also, the Press release is dated Wednesday May 19th, which is tomorrow...

If they release ths with some sort of Windows Mobile/ Palm Pre streaming software, usefullness goes up 500% and I just might be in.

[ZZZzzz @ May 18th 2009 4:41AM]

My Omnia and wmTorrent, a better solution.

[drumwiz86 @ May 18th 2009 4:44AM]

This...mmm downloading free music at high speed on the go.

[tim @ May 18th 2009 4:41AM]

what happens if one month you forget your 5 permanent songs? do they rollover? what if you want to build them up and get a whole album at once? or can you stack up a que of a couple of hundred songs, and just let them automatically download as you get downloads available?

[Mitch @ May 18th 2009 5:22AM]

A couple hundred? You only get 60 per year. By the time you have your first 30, the music you want will change, let alone 100+.

[Tim @ May 18th 2009 11:48AM]

If you want more control over your downloads then go to the store and buy a prepaid card...you can get them in increments of $5, $15, $30, or $60. You get all your downloads on day one and can use them through the end of the card.

[Neoprimal @ May 18th 2009 4:45AM]

T

[ultimatepwnage @ May 18th 2009 4:50AM]

omg! 5 "free" downloads for $5! what about all the other songs you download? you payed for them, so you should be able to do with them whatever you want. copy it to 300 cd's and 5 pmp's. why not. you payed for them. i download all my music "illegally", and if i really like the song, i buy the album, and delete the drm-crippled music straight away. because you can do whatever you want with the "illegally" downloaded music.

[Steve @ May 18th 2009 5:14AM]

You're a liar, and a bad one. A bad reader, besides: there's no issue with "all the other songs that you download," because it's a streaming service.

[fanman @ May 18th 2009 7:00AM]

Your comment is about three years out of date.