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Half arsed Napster 2.0 rundown

post #1 of 42
10/28/03 at 4:29am
Thread Starter 
Boom, I start up Napster...it asks me to login. iTunes doesn't do this, why does Napster? Oh look, I can't browse the store without logging in...LAAAAAME.




So I login and it automatically takes me to the Home section, complete with spazztastic "Rich Media Content," as they like to call it. The layout's not that bad, really. It's just a little bit sparse. The organization of the New Releases pane is inconsistent with the Just Added pane. I hate scrollboxes within scrollboxes. Oh, and what's that "Get Napster Premium Now" button at the top? Hmm...




And what happens when I maximize the window? Holy facking whitespace, Batman! Golly, what's that giant ASCII cock doing there?




Okay, enough of that...what about the tabs near the top of the window? Here's the one labeled radio ...




And magazine. Screw that. WTF good is a magazine I can't read while I'm pinching a loaf? At least it doesn't cost extra. Get that upside down loser out of my sight.




Okay, okay, let's give the magazine a shot. Oops, it broke. It did give me a nice white canvas for me to flex my artistic talents though.




Yeah, you gotta pay for the message board too...Yeah, I'm going to pay to talk to all seven other people who pre-registered and got early access.




This is what the Browse section looks like. Notice how it lumps Artist and Album into the same column. We have to use the craptastic Windows style (+) hierarchical expansion to see the albums under each artist. And that column doesn't show ANYTHING by default. We have to select a genre from the pull-down menu, then select another sub-genre and click the "go" button before anything shows up. The artist names slowly appear and cascade down the column. It's not instantaneous like the iTMS is on my cable modem. It's just text right? Sheesh. Why do we have to use both pull-down menus and column views just to browse the music library?




Finally, a somewhat cool and voyeuristic feature. We can see what songs customers are previewing, complete with their logins and profiles. Who's holly56? Is she hot? I wonder...




Here are the songs holly56 bought.




Another novelty feature. We can travel through time and see historical Billboard charts...via the same crappy interface of course.




I feel like downloading something...oh wait, no I don't.

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post #2 of 42
10/28/03 at 4:31am
Thread Starter 
What about the offline stuff? The same crappy interface applies to playlists. I can only view one playlist at a time. Playlists can't open in a separate window like they can in iTunes. It's like working with one hand tied behind behind your back...admittedly that's perfectly fine for some things...




Here's my public profile and a nice little endorsement.




And the CD burning options or complete lack thereof. You can burn a music CD and that's it. There's no gap control or anything. <kornheiser>STINKS.</kornheiser>




For about 30 minutes I couldn't figure out how to buy more than one selection at once. There's no "shopping cart" in the store. The default setting functions sorta like One-Click. It turns out you can use a contextual menu to 'bookmark' (my term, not theirs) songs in playlists, but it's tedious. You can also see recently previewed songs on the bottom-right column, but it only stores a very finite number of songs, so it's unreliable as a shopping cart. The closest thing to a shopping cart is a fackin' playlist!




And here is how Napster organized the five courtesy downloads I got.




A++++++
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post #3 of 42
10/28/03 at 4:56am
Quote:
Originally posted by Eugene
A++++++

Describes your "review"!
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post #4 of 42
10/28/03 at 5:48am
Owned.
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post #5 of 42
10/28/03 at 6:10am
Thread Starter 
Forgot to mention:

The files are WMA v7...they sound noticeably more warbly than the iTMS AAC files.

Napster claims it has 500,000 songs in its library, but many of those are streaming only, which are only available via the Napster Premium subscription service.
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post #6 of 42
10/28/03 at 6:11am
You rock, guy.

Probably the best review we'll ever see.

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post #7 of 42
10/28/03 at 7:26am
THANK YOU Omar -- err, Eugene.
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post #8 of 42
10/28/03 at 7:46am
From the "Microsoft do brushed metal" thread:
Quote:
[edit by Brad: don't post huge inline images!!]

Really?

So the ONE image gets dinged (removed) there, but you can do 10-15 here?

In any case, funny stuff with this Napster review.

Not as funny as murbot's hard drive "repair" thread, but close.

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post #9 of 42
10/28/03 at 7:49am
Quote:
Originally posted by Eugene
Napster claims it has 500,000 songs in its library, but many of those are streaming only, which are only available via the Napster Premium subscription service.

That's a big ouch right there IMO. Napster should probably compete on quantity, the WallMart of downloadable music, though I guess that holds true to some extent even if some (or many?) songs are streaming-only or for "premium" members only. We should have seen that last "premium" bit coming given this is all via Real Networks, isn't it?

We'll see. The iPod showed that Apple's design strength can make a big difference in the marketplace. But there are also many examples where "good enough" wins out over that. I don't know if Napster's UI will be good enough or not.

Well, the streaming thing does give me an idea for feedback to the iTMS: doing some of their own streaming radio, or at least setting up labels' radio stations in iTunes. Wonder how that would affect bandwidth issues and costs though?

Thanks, Eugene.
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post #10 of 42
10/28/03 at 7:50am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by pscates

So the ONE image gets dinged (removed) there, but you can do 10-15 here?

That image screwed with forum formatting. My widest image is 684 pixels, not 1024 pixels.
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post #11 of 42
10/28/03 at 7:50am
Quote:
Originally posted by pscates
So the ONE image gets dinged (removed) there, but you can do 10-15 here?

Big difference.

Eugene's images are small enough that they don't distort and stretch the forums at the normal width of 1024.
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post #12 of 42
10/28/03 at 7:58am
Thread Starter 
Napster did give me some feedback ideas for iTunes Music Store refinement though.

In iTunes, how can you bookmark songs you haven't purchased, but want to at a later point? The Shopping Cart forces you to buy everything you put in there. The iTunes Music Store needs publicly accessible wishlists.

Building on top of that, the iTMS of course needs the ability for other users to buy songs or mixes/playlists for you as gifts. The next time you browse the store, you get a notification and download links.

And building on top of that, the Napster pseudo-sharing concept is actually interesting as acknowledged earlier. If celebs can "publish" their playlists, customers should be able to too.

More creative categories too. Seasonal categories, like if you need quick access to Yuletide tunes for your Christmas iMovie masterpiece...Love songs for Valentine's Day. Et cetera, et cetera.
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post #13 of 42
10/28/03 at 8:04am
It's iTunes Tuesday. End of the month. Shouldn't today be the day Apple has 400,000+ songs available?
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post #14 of 42
10/28/03 at 8:06am
Quote:
Originally posted by Eugene
Napster did give me some feedback ideas for iTunes Music Store refinement though.

<snip>

All good ideas, all ones I've submitted from more of an Amazon.com perspective, but now that Napster has some semblance of these features, it might be a good idea to submit them again with a new frame of reference.
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post #15 of 42
10/28/03 at 8:07am
Quote:
Originally posted by Eugene
Napster did give me some feedback ideas for iTunes Music Store refinement though.

In iTunes, how can you bookmark songs you haven't purchased, but want to at a later point? The Shopping Cart forces you to buy everything you put in there. The iTunes Music Store needs publicly accessible wishlists.

Building on top of that, the iTMS of course needs the ability for other users to buy songs or mixes/playlists for you as gifts. The next time you browse the store, you get a notification and download links.

And building on top of that, the Napster pseudo-sharing concept is actually interesting as acknowledged earlier. If celebs can "publish" their playlists, customers should be able to too.

More creative categories too. Seasonal categories, like if you need quick access to Yuletide tunes for your Christmas iMovie masterpiece...Love songs for Valentine's Day. Et cetera, et cetera.

Some good ideas, but how would a wishlist work? Would I buy a song for that person and then they'd get an email telling them to download it? It would be nice, but it's not analogous to a book purchase or something... good for thought.
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post #16 of 42
10/28/03 at 8:11am
Brad/Eugene,

I stand corrected and I apologize. I just saw it run off the side quite far and thought "huh?". Wasn't sure if there was an actual pixel limit to know.

Thanks.
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post #17 of 42
10/28/03 at 8:15am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by pscates

I stand corrected and I apologize. I just saw it run off the side quite far and thought "huh?". Wasn't sure if there was an actual pixel limit to know.

Yours must be pretty small!

I mentioned 1024 pixels because that was the width of the Longhorn screenshot.
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post #18 of 42
10/28/03 at 8:50am
Actually, it's my browser. I've always just kept it at 2/3 or so the width of the screen, so I can see stuff on right side of my desktop (drives, downloads, dragged files, iChat window, etc.).



I don't think I've ever set a browser window to cover my screen, so yeah...mine is "pretty small". THE BROWSER WINDOW, that is.

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post #19 of 42
10/28/03 at 5:40pm
Quote:
Originally posted by pscates

Not as funny as murbot's hard drive "repair" thread, but close.


How do I find this? I wana read it!!! I searched and searched, but couldn't find it, if anyone would be nice enough to point me in the right direction that would be awesome. Thanks!
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post #20 of 42
10/28/03 at 5:47pm
I just ruined my hard drive

And with that:

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post #21 of 42
10/28/03 at 5:57pm
Oh crap, lots of those pics are moved... have to fix 'em.
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post #22 of 42
10/28/03 at 6:02pm
Napster 2.0 looks pretty...inferior to iTMS.

but, the napster name is a powerful one, they will likely get a lot of business just because of the name.

although, I've already heard a lot of people complaining "this isn't napster" and such.

good suggestions though, there are many times when I am browsing the music store and think "such and such would love this!" and I want to buy it for them as a gift, but it's not really feasible.

Wishlists are good too.

user playlists are nice too.

just as long as iTMS doesn't get too cluttered.

Right now I've been noticing major slowdowns with iTMS, it used to be so snappy, and responsive, but lately I've been getting "opening url" and "accessing music store" A LOT more than I used to.

I'd wager it's because a million+ users just signed up and more are everyday. But it's still very weak, Apple needs to do something about the speed before it becomes a real problem.
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post #23 of 42
10/28/03 at 6:11pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Wrong Robot
although, I've already heard a lot of people complaining "this isn't napster" and such.

This is potentially a really important point. While I think Real is trying to take advantage of the name and targeting the enthusiastic but ignorant crowd who never really knew Napster, it could backfire too. Obviously Real weighed the risks and decided it was worth it. The most we'll probably hear is folks in their late teens and early 20's waxing nostalgic about the Good Ol' Days of Napster and little impact on the popularity of the service as it replaces most others' memories and consciousness of the (rather good) original.
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post #24 of 42
10/28/03 at 6:43pm
Thread Starter 
Napster has nothing to do with Real. Napster is run by Roxio.
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post #25 of 42
10/28/03 at 6:44pm
Great Job!

*Gives two thumbs up*

I really liked the review...

We must submit it to /.


[edit: that is /. not ./]
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post #26 of 42
10/28/03 at 7:02pm
--> In iTunes, how can you bookmark songs you haven't purchased, but want to at a later point?

You can drag the track to your desktop as a url
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post #27 of 42
10/28/03 at 7:15pm
Quote:
Originally posted by FunkyRes
--> In iTunes, how can you bookmark songs you haven't purchased, but want to at a later point?

You can drag the track to your desktop as a url

Yes! Thank you for posting that! I knew I could drag the links but I never knew what I could do with them. Does this work on Windows too?
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post #28 of 42
10/28/03 at 10:24pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by pensieve
Does this work on Windows too?

Yes it does, but it's still a hacked-up way to store purchases for later...
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post #29 of 42
10/29/03 at 12:42am
Quote:
Originally posted by Eugene
Yes it does, but it's still a hacked-up way to store purchases for later...

With Christmas coming - a "wish list" would be a good thing - and provide "bookmark" functionallity.

Apple already has the ability to search for purchased songs that you haven't downloaded - it would be trivial to add a wish list that others could use to buy you music.

Just send you an e-mail telling you that you have paid for music.

It would be kind of cool - I could buy music for my sister that would driver her nuts
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post #30 of 42
10/29/03 at 1:27am
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Quote:
Originally posted by Eugene

Hmm. A difficult one. I think the other members of napster hate music. I could be wrong though.
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post #31 of 42
10/29/03 at 6:21am
Quote:
Originally posted by Eugene
Napster has nothing to do with Real. Napster is run by Roxio.

Whoops, had a feeling I had the wrong company. Funny little brain cramp, no? Thanks for correcting me. It's just the kind of thing Real does I guess.
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post #32 of 42
10/29/03 at 6:25am
Choo choo...

Anyway.

Does that launch today then? I don't think it'll find much success, now that iTunes is available on the PC side. I'd be curious to see the numbers on PC-based iTunes usage during Jobs' MWSF keynote...
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post #33 of 42
10/30/03 at 5:14pm
Hey, are you Omar from that Panther preview video?
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post #34 of 42
10/30/03 at 5:42pm
How can you "bookmark" tracks you want to buy from iTMS? What I did was just buy them so they show up in the shopping cart, and then I didn't click the button to complete my purchase. The tracks I put in my shopping cart a few days ago are still there, and iTMS is waiting for me to feed it money.

As for Napster 2.0, as long as Apple never adopts a monthly fee business model and never incorporates WMA support into iTunes/iPod, Apple can't lose this battle. What's the incentive for a Windows user who bought an iPod even before the Windows-compatible store came out (and who now is even happier with his iPod because of iTunes and the store) to dump iTMS for Napster? I can't see that happening very often.
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post #35 of 42
10/30/03 at 5:52pm
Quote:
And what happens when I maximize the window? Holy facking whitespace, Batman! Golly, what's that giant ASCII cock doing there?

That was great

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post #36 of 42
10/30/03 at 6:42pm
Hello, Testicles!

Napster's comeback is less than glorious. Who is next to challenge iTMS?
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Computer: Cedric
Specs: eMac, 700MHz PowerPC G4, 384MB of RAM, 40GB HD, CD-RW drive, nVidia GeForce 2 MX, Mac OS X 10.1.5/Mac OS 9.2.2
Media: 1800 tunes, 78 photos, 3 movies, no DVD's.
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post #37 of 42
10/30/03 at 9:20pm
Thread Starter 
Look, child, here are some links to keep an eye on:

Napster 2.0 downloads

iTunes 4.1.1 for Windows downloads

iTunes leads 97772 to 7844 at the moment...give Napster a week and we'll revisit the figures are again. Oh and for those who didn't see the Kazaa download link in an older thread, look at the advertisements on the Napster download page.
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post #38 of 42
11/14/03 at 11:54pm
Thread Starter 
I didn't think it was possible. The MusicMatch interface is about 100x worse than Napster 2.0's.
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post #39 of 42
11/15/03 at 12:11am
Quote:
Originally posted by Eugene
I didn't think it was possible. The MusicMatch interface is about 100x worse than Napster 2.0's.

The people demand a full review.
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post #40 of 42
11/15/03 at 1:25am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally posted by Brad
The people demand a full review.

It seriously gave me a headache just looking at the layout. Without 5 free downloads I can't really go through the purchasing process completely, so I won't even bother with a review...

Some quick jabs...

- When you launch the MM software you will occasionally be reminded to upgrade to MusicMatch Plus.

- All the options are in a sidebar with the traditional Windows style tree-view. Genre, Era, Charts, New Music. Other than that, you have to use the search window (Artist, Album, Track). There's no power search.

- There are no graphics except for album covers. The "Home" button just shows you the top 25 tracks and a featured artist.

- I hate one-click purchasing and crap. I use the shopping cart option in iTunes. MM forces you to buy one album or track at a time.

...

---BEGIN MUSICMATCH REVIEW---

IT BLOWS DONKEY COCK

---END MUSICMATCH REVIEW---
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