Rhapsody is buying Napster from Best Buy. Details of the deal weren't disclosed, except that Best Buy will be getting a minority stake in Rhapsody.
Based on statements from Rhapsody executives, it appears this may mark the end of the Napster brand..
Rhapsody President Jon Irwin said:
This deal will further extend Rhapsody's lead over our competitors in the growing on-demand music ... [ read the full article ]
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I haven't been a Napster subscriber for a year or two, but when I had it, it was a pretty good service (and hackable so you could remove DRM from their tracks.) Rhapsody on the other hand has terrible to non-existent customer service and runs their brand on proprietary DRM'd Real Media. Awful in ever aspect.
I've hit a point where I refuse all DRM content. If DRM is involved, I won't touch it, even in the game industry. These moves by EA and Sony to stop used games sales by requiring a $10 account to play or whatever are keeping me from spending hundreds on games I think look good and would otherwise get. Same thing for music from iTunes and the like and so on.
DRM f*cks the legitimate customer and should not be tolerated.
Originally posted by buxtahuda: I've hit a point where I refuse all DRM content. If DRM is involved, I won't touch it, even in the game industry. These moves by EA and Sony to stop used games sales by requiring a $10 account to play or whatever are keeping me from spending hundreds on games I think look good and would otherwise get. Same thing for music from iTunes and the like and so on.
DRM f*cks the legitimate customer and should not be tolerated.
True, but iTunes is no longer shackled by DRM and they actually started offering higher bitrate files when they removed it. Though I'm less inclined to buy hundreds of dollars in digital music, I will spend $1 for a song I like versus $12-15 for a physical CD where that song is the only thing worth purchasing the disc for.
As for video games, I was extremely (insert expletive) that I activated my copy of Madden 12, only to find out I couldn't update the rosters unless I ALSO had an Xbox Live Gold account. Now that's complete BS. I don't have Gold because I'm lucky to turn on my console once or twice a week and play for an hour. Franchise mode lasts an actual season with me, but then they want to rope me into paying monthly? Sure, it's good for other stuff and other games, but I'm only playing Madden and I get Netflix on my Blu-Ray player, so there's no incentive for me other than the roster update. Thank God there are some smart folks on the web that found a way around that, using a USB flash drive. Shame on you EA.
Another thing that was good with Napster is they had a streaming app for iPhone, so with a subscription, you had unlimited music at your fingertips without needing a larger capacity idevice.
Originally posted by buxtahuda: I've hit a point where I refuse all DRM content. If DRM is involved, I won't touch it, even in the game industry. These moves by EA and Sony to stop used games sales by requiring a $10 account to play or whatever are keeping me from spending hundreds on games I think look good and would otherwise get. Same thing for music from iTunes and the like and so on.
DRM f*cks the legitimate customer and should not be tolerated.
Could not agree more with you on this, drm really sucks and I can't wait for the day they're finally gonna get rid of it.
Although it's not a huge drawback, since as the guys round here mentioned there are some workarounds that let you enjoy your files hassle free, just as they should be in the first place.
Pretty sure good ole Tunebite is still fit for the job, worked just fine for Napster files and surely will work just as good to remove drm and convert Rhapsody music to drm-clean files.
