Remember Napster, the totally illegal file-sharing program turned legal music subscription site? Yeah, neither did we (or at least we chose not to), until today, when it it launched a music store with 6 million DRM-free tracks for sale at competitive prices (i.e. MP3s at $1 per song). Previously, Napster had been selling songs in the outrageously misnamed PlaysForSure format.
Apple's iTunes music store only sells 2 million "iTunes Plus" songs that will work on players other than an iPod, and Amazon, which is known for selling DRM-free music, has only 5 million songs for sale in MP3 format. We're not sure exactly what, if any, great artists are represented in those million extra songs that Napster has over Amazon, but we do believe that more choice and less DRM can only be a good thing. Thank you, Napster. Based on this move, we might actually start visiting your website again.
editor@dvice.com
By pethead at 12:10 AM ON 05/21/08
WTF? iTunes doesn't sell their non-DRM'd files at a premium, anymore. And it's been a long time too...
By S.E. Kramer at 1:27 PM ON 05/21/08
@Pethead: duly noted. Thanks for pointing out the error--I've changed the sentence in question. Looks like it's been a while since I bought a song on iTunes.