What do you think is better? (I'm talking about legal music only.)
The "Napster-ish Listen to Anything You Want for A $9.95 Monthly Subscription" model, or the "iTunes-style Buy Individual Tracks for $0.99" model?
I've tried both, and I've decided I actually like the subscription model better.
- I rarely use a portable music player, and I listen to most of my music on my PC(s).
- All my PCs have broadband Internet connections. At work and at home.
- I tend to listen to a CD a lot for two weeks or so, then I rarely want to hear it again.
- I'm not really picky about the audio quality. As long as it's decent, it's good enough for me.
So all I have to do to make the subscription model cheaper is discover a good CD every two weeks on the service.
If I find one CD a week I want to listen to, that's only $2.50 a CD.
So as long as music I want to hear shows up on the service... it works out that the subscription is better for me.
I'm not sure I'd ever pay $0.99 each for downloadable songs, for something that I can only have on a few (5) computers at once, plus isn't the original CD quality, plus has those annoying DRM limitations.
If I like something enough that I want it permanently, instead of buying the downloadable track, I'd much rather pay the $15, go to the CD store down the street, and get the originals on a real physical CD, rather than buy a digital version on iTunes.
Frankly, if I could copy tracks onto an MP3 player using Napster's $9.95/month plan (you can't right now, without buying the tracks for $0.99 each), I don't see any reason to even consider iTunes. (Even if they DRM the tracks when you copy them onto the MP3 player, I don't really mind.)
The only disadvantages with Napster right now are the selection (it doesn't seem to be as good as iTunes), the audio quality (not CD quality), and the mentioned inability to copy tracks to a portable player (not that I use that).
What do you guys think?
The "Napster-ish Listen to Anything You Want for A $9.95 Monthly Subscription" model, or the "iTunes-style Buy Individual Tracks for $0.99" model?
I've tried both, and I've decided I actually like the subscription model better.
- I rarely use a portable music player, and I listen to most of my music on my PC(s).
- All my PCs have broadband Internet connections. At work and at home.
- I tend to listen to a CD a lot for two weeks or so, then I rarely want to hear it again.
- I'm not really picky about the audio quality. As long as it's decent, it's good enough for me.
So all I have to do to make the subscription model cheaper is discover a good CD every two weeks on the service.
If I find one CD a week I want to listen to, that's only $2.50 a CD.
So as long as music I want to hear shows up on the service... it works out that the subscription is better for me.
I'm not sure I'd ever pay $0.99 each for downloadable songs, for something that I can only have on a few (5) computers at once, plus isn't the original CD quality, plus has those annoying DRM limitations.
If I like something enough that I want it permanently, instead of buying the downloadable track, I'd much rather pay the $15, go to the CD store down the street, and get the originals on a real physical CD, rather than buy a digital version on iTunes.
Frankly, if I could copy tracks onto an MP3 player using Napster's $9.95/month plan (you can't right now, without buying the tracks for $0.99 each), I don't see any reason to even consider iTunes. (Even if they DRM the tracks when you copy them onto the MP3 player, I don't really mind.)
The only disadvantages with Napster right now are the selection (it doesn't seem to be as good as iTunes), the audio quality (not CD quality), and the mentioned inability to copy tracks to a portable player (not that I use that).
What do you guys think?
