Napster relaunching, again: $5 per month streaming plus five free downloads
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 18th 2009 4:04AM
posted May 18th 2009 4:04AM
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.
• 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.
It's PAID. With all that money you've saved by pirating, you can easily afford a basic English class in between your trolling sessions.
well i can bit torrent a Mocha Frappuccino so id say that $5 is more well spent.
The Napster deal is good, but the Zune Pass is much better for a family or anyone who uses their Zune regularly on the road/gym/etc. $14.99 and Mom, Dad and Kid can be on it - or Kid, Kid and Kid...or Kid, Kid and Mom...or, well you get the drift. The music is totally mobile, transferrable to 3 Zunes and you get to keep a handful of songs. Technically, it's exactly like the Napster deal EXCEPT you get to take your songs with you.
This Napster plan is perfect however, for those that don't use mp3 players regularly and don't pirate music.
There is still a Napster To Go service that allows you to take all your music with you on a compatible MP3 player if you want to go that way.
unlimited streaming for $5? wow!
only $5 per month, lol, i can afford that.
Spotify is great. But you get 3 adverts per album, would you rather not pay just £5 for a much larger advert free library access? To get Spotify advert-free it costs ~$15.
Also, Napster works with Squeezebox's and Sonos. The only way to listen to Spotify right now is with a PC (although that will change soon hopefully). Don't get me wrong, Spotify is great - but Napster looks a lot more attractive to me right now.
i've played several thousand songs in spotify and never heard a commercial?
You'll Never Shut Down The Real Napster!
The way I read this press release, it's not the five unrestricted downloads that are "CD quality," it's the streaming music that can be listened to in "CD Quality."
I seriously doubt that any music you get from this service will be "CD Quality." I'm sick of these claims -- Just because it's digital, it doesn't mean it's CD quality.
$5 ???? you guys remember what happened to yahoo music when they tried a similar price scheme.. i am calling it... Napster goes under within 6 months..... by the way this coming from a Napster subscriber for the past 2 years... their software sucks... its freakin slow... only plus is you can use a FairUse&$# to strip the DRM =P........ Now will Rhapsody respond or absorb Napster in a take over
Reading comprehension 4tw. The article makes it clear Best Buy bought them last year. I don't think Rhapsody is going to be buying BBY.
*shiver* Rhapsody...
::Yawn:: Napster + Tunebite = Unlimited MP3s
If the goal is just to rip off the songs, why even bother with Napster?
Its not ripping anyone off. Its completely legal.
Legal-ish as long as you're paying for the service, but as soon as you stop the service, not legal in any sense...
On a side note, it's still showing $13/mo for me...
$5 per month for unlimited streaming to an Android device over HSDPA or WiFi would be perfect.
Five songs for five dollars and free unlimited streaming? Sounds pretty good, if the catalog's decent and the downloads are well-encoded.
It just seems like the subscription model refuses to take off. I like the Zune Pass, and when the Zune HD comes out, I think it might have a shot of making it big. But nothing else seems to have any chance.
I think the largest complaint people have against ZunePass and similar subscription models is that they're dropping all this money and they're not even owning the music they're listening to. If they ever decide to stop, all their music is gone. You might spend a ton of music on iTunes buying songs, but at least it's yours forever.
So, it'll be interesting to see how popular the new Napster service gets since it combines the subscription and unprotected MP3 paid download approach.
I don't get it. You get 5 mp3s for $5, which is about what you'd pay on iTunes (though five songs on iTunes can cost as much as $6.45). They also throw in unlimited streaming, but it's your choice what to listen to, unlike internet radio and Pandora. Seems like a good deal to me. What's the problem?
People like hating on Napster and Best Buy. Remember, this is Engadget, readers here tend to be able to find their own solutions for getting free music.
But you're right, it is a very good deal and I think Napster will pick up a lot of subscribers from this, considering that the songs you get are MP3s and that Best Buy is giving this service a high priority in their stores.
Back in the day, you can record a radio and make a mix tape. Why can't we just record internet streaming and make a mix-CD? (using programs like audacity) It' the same concept. Not sure why it's illegal. :p
Technically, it was illegal before. But nobody really cared that you did it before. But now that it's so easy to digitally record those songs and distribute them to the entire world on the internet, now they care. Although RIAA did say they're not going to sue people anymore, so that's a step in the right direction.
Make an android/iphone app and it will take off.
You really think Apple would approve an app like that? It would directly cut into iTunes sales.
I was all excited about trying it and they they went and said something about the experience we've come to expect from Napster and Best Buy.
Whoa, Nelly. That's put a crimp in my mojo, to mix metaphors.
I would love to have heard this pitch.
Exec A: OK, here is the plan, we offer the same service for less. It can't fail!
Exec B: But hasn't it failed before?
A: No, $12.99 failed, this is $5!
B: You have a point.
A: How could it fail? American car manufacturers have proven that offering the same product year after year for less money is a perfect business model.
B: When you're right, you're right.
So, basically, as long as you buy 5 tracks per month, you get unlimited streaming? Not bad, not bad at all, especially compared to what's out there now.
So how long before I can get a $5 unrestricted itunes streaming pass for my iphone.
Streaming and Subscription are not the same thing. Subscription allows you to download the files and play them (on a compatible player) when you're not connected to the internet. Maybe that's no big deal to some people, but I almost never play music directly on my computer, it's always offloaded to a handheld player of some kind.
Why not use Lala (www.lala.com)? Unlimited streaming for free, you can buy DRM-free tracks when you want to, AND you can upload your entire library for online access.
Lala is not unlimited streaming for free, unless you consider one listen per song to be unlimited...
You people are looking at this all wrong. Pay $5 for 5 songs on napster per month, Same with Itunes (hopefully, if it's not a new track, then it's $1.29 per track), but with Napster you're also getting the ability to play the entire song (itunes only lets you preview 30 seconds). This is a step in the right direction.
Don't forget guys/gals, itunes has raised their prices as well, Napsters are still 99 cents per song. So this deal comes at a great time!
Not good enough.
OK, I joined today, and I'm thrilled. My music tastes are not particularly common, and yet there's more than enough weirdness here to satisfy me. On a side note, the 121 track Naked City box set is selling for normal album price. 121 tracks. $10.
Interesting. This is actually appealing.
Now if only eMusic allows the streaming thing.
They never heard about Limewire? lol