Free music from Napster, except it isn't free

[Steve]

iTunes has Napster over a barrel. Napster seems unable to touch the gargantuan music service provided by Apple, so they're offering free music for everyone! Actually, rewind a little. It's RIAA that has Napster over a barrel, because the music isn't really free, it's more of a 'preview'...

Napster actually means that you can listen to a song five times for free before being cut off from the service. And while Napster claims that Mac and Linux users can now partake in this openness adventure, that's only a half-truth. Mac and Linux customers can do the five-download thing, but if they want to listen to songs more via Napster's subscription service, they'll have to shell out for a Windows box.

[The Register]

[directhex]

...right

how long is this "free" music loan for?

[Steve]

music loan

Actually, I like that idea.

Imagine this:

I loan some music from a download service, but after one month's usage I have to return the music to them, plus interest (songs I have, but didn't borrow from them,) so I end up with fewer songs than I started with.

Sounds like a good business.

[TheAnimus]

actually this is one of the few times i would support DRM in a hypothetical world where DRM:
A. Worked
B. Moved Between devices

Say a new album is comming out, for the first month, you can listen to it, for free. Then after that you have to buy it. I do like that that idea a lot, its worth noting that many artists (even major signed ones) do this without the DRM.

[UltraMagnus]

thats rediculous and stupid, period.....