Friday, September 10, 2004
My Napster Trial - Not So Impressed Any More...
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 11:00 AM
I've been using Napster for a couple of weeks now and while I like several aspects of it, the more I use it the more frustrated I am with it. I was at a record store this week and saw the new Seether album. I like the song "Broken" by Seether and Amy Lee. I didn't buy the album at the store, because hey, I'm already paying for a monthly Napster subscription, so I don't need to buy CDs any more, right? I should have known better. :roll: I tried searching for Seether, and this is what Napster returned as search results instead. Do you see Seether in there? Nope. I tried searching for the soundtrack for The Punisher, and they didn't have that either. Amy Lee? No results.
Last night I went to see Sarah McLachlan play last night, and there was an opening act named Butterfly Boucher. It's not shocking that a relatively unknown act isn't up on Napster, but it underscores the point that Napster isn't yet a comprehensive music service. What is shocking though is that they only had two partial Sarah McLachlan albums. If a music service doesn't have the music you want to listen to, how useful can it really be?
There's also the irritating fact that not all of the Napster catalog is available to me as a subscriber - quite often I'll click the "Download Album" option and I'll get a warning window telling me that not all tracks on that album are available for download, I need to purchase them if I want to listen. And forget about even being able to buy a whole album - quite frequently I'll see an "album" being offered, and it's missing tracks! I'm looking at a Sarah McLachlan album right now and they only have tracks 1, 5, 6, and 10 for download or purchase.
Lastly, the Napster plugin for WMP10 seems a bit flaky - it often locks up WMP10 for several seconds and while my music keeps playing, I can't switch screens. If you're a Napster subscriber, tell me what you think of the service - am I missing something, or have you grown accustomed to the glitches I've brought up?
Last night I went to see Sarah McLachlan play last night, and there was an opening act named Butterfly Boucher. It's not shocking that a relatively unknown act isn't up on Napster, but it underscores the point that Napster isn't yet a comprehensive music service. What is shocking though is that they only had two partial Sarah McLachlan albums. If a music service doesn't have the music you want to listen to, how useful can it really be?
There's also the irritating fact that not all of the Napster catalog is available to me as a subscriber - quite often I'll click the "Download Album" option and I'll get a warning window telling me that not all tracks on that album are available for download, I need to purchase them if I want to listen. And forget about even being able to buy a whole album - quite frequently I'll see an "album" being offered, and it's missing tracks! I'm looking at a Sarah McLachlan album right now and they only have tracks 1, 5, 6, and 10 for download or purchase.
Lastly, the Napster plugin for WMP10 seems a bit flaky - it often locks up WMP10 for several seconds and while my music keeps playing, I can't switch screens. If you're a Napster subscriber, tell me what you think of the service - am I missing something, or have you grown accustomed to the glitches I've brought up?
