Napster v. iTunes: By the Numbers (Part 3)
In seeking to answer a question in the comments of a previous post about Napster, I've come across some limitations under Napster's implementation of the rental model that consumers might be interested in (and I've added them to the table in Napster v. iTunes: By the Numbers (Part 2)).
You can only transfer your files to at most three portable devices.
As Napster's Terms and Conditions say:
If you have rented files on a portable device, you need to connect it to Napster at least monthly.
Napster's rental model also puts an additional burden on the consumer of making sure that they connect their portable device each month.
You can't burn rented tracks to CDs at all.
However "downloads" (rented tracks) cannot be burned to a CD at all in Napster unless you buy them.
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You can only transfer your files to at most three portable devices.
As Napster's Terms and Conditions say:
If you wish to . . . transfer [Downloads] to compatible portable devices (other than using the "Napster To Go" Service described below) you will need to pay for them as Purchased Tracks . . .Although you do have to go through the additional effort of registering for Napster To Go, there does not seem to be any additional charge as the Napster To Go page says it's part of the $14.95/month rental service fee.
[I]f you register for the "Napster To Go" tier, you will be able to transfer your Downloads an unlimited amount of times to up to a maximum of three (3) such compatible portable devices for as long as your "Napster To Go" membership is current.
If you have rented files on a portable device, you need to connect it to Napster at least monthly.
Napster's rental model also puts an additional burden on the consumer of making sure that they connect their portable device each month.
Napster also automatically renews your rights to any Downloads stored on your portable devices at the beginning of each Subscription Month. Thus, in order to continue to play such Downloads on that portable device, you will need to dock your portable device (i.e., connect to the PC) and log onto Napster at the beginning of each Subscription Month.While this makes sense and probably won't usually cause most users any problems, there's a variety of situations where it could be a pain, e.g., you want to take your portable music player on a two-week vacation starting on July 31st with no way to connect to the net while there.
You can't burn rented tracks to CDs at all.
You may burn each Purchased Track to a CD up to seven (7) times as part of any particular playlist of songs. A "playlist" is a discrete group of Purchased Tracks that are arranged together in a particular order. Once you have burned a Purchased Track to a CD, you agree not to copy, distribute, or transfer the track from that CD to any other media or device.So this behaves just like purchased tracks in iTunes; you can burn any given track effectively as many times as you want because slightly changing the playlist will let you avoid the 7-CD limitation. (For example, there are 3,628,800 possible song orders on any 10-track CD, and if you burn each of those 7 times, you've got 25,401,600 CDs. It only takes 2,000,000 units sold to for a single to go platinum in the United States, and even less for albums or to go gold. I'd be surprised if pirates haven't yet taken advantage of this, as it seems like you could do pull this off with mere AppleScript.)
However "downloads" (rented tracks) cannot be burned to a CD at all in Napster unless you buy them.
If you wish to burn Downloads to CDs . . . you will need to pay for them as Purchased Tracks . . .This makes sense on a rental model, but Napster is far from clear in pointing this out on their website outside of the small print.
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posted by Vincent at 1:59 PM
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