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[jgreen]

Yes, free as in "beer", although not free as in "speech".  If you're willing to get pelted by ads, which aren't quite too intrusive, Napster just intro'd their free web streaming service.  Sound quality appears to be degraded from their download service, although that could just be the skeptic in me.

[jgreen]

Well, I gave it a bit more of a listen.  It is definitely thinner-sounding, FWIW.  Reading further, the streams are 32k, hardly comparable to the 192k and 128k downloads.

Conclusion:  worth every penny you paid for it.

[KingSparta]

from:

http://html.wral.com/sh/blogger/2006/05/napster-song-service-is-now-legal-and.html

Napster Song Service is Now Legal AND Free
If you were around the Internet in the late 90s and early 00s you remember Napster. You might remember that it was a way to download songs for free! And you might remember that they got sued a lot by folks like the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and Metallica.

Then the Internet bubble burst and Napster changed tack, buffed its shoes and got a shiny legal look. You could still download songs! It would just cost you money.

Now Napster has gone full circle. It's still legit -- but now it's free. That's right, you can listen to songs on Napster for free. Here's the twist: you can only listen to a given song five times.

Napster's available at http://www.napster.com. In order to take advantage of this new feature you'll need to register with Napster, which requires you to pick a user name and a password and provide an e-mail address. But you don't need to download any software or install any Napster-specific software on your computer.

Registered? Great. Once registered you can go back to Napster's home page and log in. If you've ever used iTunes, this'll look a bit familiar -- the front page contains pointers to music by genre and several recommended lists of music.

I know what I want to listen to; Wolf Parade was in Chapel Hill not too long ago and I want to hear them. The search box is at the top of the page, so I pop in Wolf Parade. Notice you can search by track name, artist name, or album name.

Napster gives me one result for Wolf Parade. If you click on it you'll get a list of albums released by the band (in this case two) in addition to tracks recommended for people who like Wolf Parade. Also don't miss the tabs across the top of the information window -- you can get additional information like the artist biography, recommendations for other artists, and a full listing of all the tracks. (Not all information is available for all artists.)

I go straight to the track listing -- again, if you've ever used iTunes this is going to look familiar. You do have the option to buy the track, of course, but you can also click the play button to the left of the song title.

A new window will pop up with a Flash player for the music (if you don't see it, make sure that a) you have the most current Flash player, b) you can allow popups, and c) you can allow ActiveX controls.) From there click play and listen.

The twist, as I said, is that you can only listen to a song five times. If you listen to a song five times and try to listen to it six times, you'll get an error message. Of course you can join Napster, pay a fee, and listen to songs as many times as you like.

If you're into exploring new music but you don't have a lot of money, Napster's free offerings are great. It covers lots of genres of music, from country to alternative to hip-hop to classical to world to more. There is some advertising on the site -- hey, they're letting you listen to music for free! -- but it's not overly obtrusive. Take out your earphones and do some exploring