The Return of Free Music
| posted by Fast Company staffLast night at midnight Napster got closer to its free music exchange roots, launching a site that lets the public listen to any song in the Napster collection in its entirety up to five times, no charge. The sound quality isn't as good as it is for a monthly subscription, but it's decent. The only catch is a short ad appears every three songs. While Yahoo and other services have similar free music offers, Napster's has fewer ads and doesn't require any particular browser or application to load. And, its collection is huge. Bloggers will appreciate the links section where you can link back to Napster's songs to build playlists. Being able to e-mail songs to friends, easily, is also a bonus.
There have been countless times when I've considered buying a song or an album online only to hesitate because I couldn't hear the whole thing. Forget trying to get the jist of a live recording in 15 seconds--sometimes the artist's intro lasts longer. Same with anything techno. Even if Napster's site doesn't draw as many new subscribers as the company hopes it will, it's a step in the right digital direction for music. The more open, the better. After all, you can return a shirt you ordered online for a refund, but it's not so easy to get a refund on a crappy song from iTunes.
