Napster-to-Go Portable Music Download Service: An Honest Review

For a few years now I've been using an iPod to listen to music in the car, on my way to work, and around the house. The iTunes software can convert any CD I have into digital format, and I can download millions of songs from the iTunes music store. Recently though, I got a new cell phone which can store music on an external memory card and act as an MP3 player. The idea of having my phone also hold my music appealed to me, so I decided to load my digital music library onto my Helio Ocean 2 cell phone.

Unfortunately, my iTunes music didn't transfer to my phone because it is in Apple's DRM-protected format. This irritated me. Anything I had ripped from a CD would transfer because it was in unprotected MP3 format, but nothing I had downloaded directly from iTunes would play on my phone. I searched the internet for other music download services and found out about the Napster-to-Go "all you can eat" music download plan.

Here's how it works--you can download as many tracks as you want for listening on your computer or compatible portable device (like my Helio phone) for $14.95 per month. Napster has a pretty extensive music catalog which rivals iTunes, but here's the catch: you can't burn your music to a CD without paying a 99-cent per-track fee to Napster, and if you stop paying Napster their $14.95 per month, your music collection will just stop working. Napster also has the right to charge more in the future, so if you don't agree to every rate increase they issue, you're out of luck.

Despite the tight controls Napster had over their music, they were offering a 30 day free trial of the Napster-to-Go service so I decided to give it a try. Downloading music through their Napster software was a relatively straightforward process, although searching for a particular track was a bit slow and tedious at times. When I connected my Helio Ocean 2 cell phone to my computer it instantly appeared as a "Mobile Device" in the Napster software and all my tracks automatically transferred to my phone. Once on my phone, the tracks played just like my own MP3s and I like that the Napster tracks also came with album artwork. Over the next coupe of weeks I used the Napster service to find lots of new music. Since I wasn't paying per track like with iTunes, I could experiment and download music that I wouldn't have normally purchased. The Napster software offered helpful music suggestions and within a month I had downloaded over 70 tracks from Napster.

Then my free trial expired, and Napster wanted their $14.95. Within 24 hours of telling me they wanted money, my music stopped playing on both my computer and my phone. Napster claims you can get unlimited music for "the price of 1 CD per month," but with album downloads on iTunes at $9.99, it's more like a CD-and-a-half per month. And you better want to buy that CD-and-a-half every month for the rest of your life. Since Napster has such tight DRM controls you have to sync your portable device with your computer at least once per month to keep your music playing, and I imagine it would make me pretty angry if I forgot to do that and my music stopped working when I was at work or on the road.

In the end, I think the Napster-to-Go portable music download service sounds good at first, but if you're an average music listener, you'll end up paying a lot more for your music collection in the end than if you just purchased each track outright upfront. iTunes recently announced their music was becoming DRM-free, so although this won't be retroactive on already-downloaded tracks, any tracks downloaded from now on through iTunes should be able to be played on most standard MP3 players and not just the iPod. If you think you'll keep downloading at least 15 songs per month for the rest of your life, and you don't mind not being able to burn CDs or share your music, Napster may be a good option for you. Just remember they have the right to increase their monthly fee at any time, or cancel their service altogether, so who knows what will happen to your music in the future? To sign up for Napster or learn more about their service, visit http://www.napster.com.