Napster on XDA IIs

[Guest Porkspeare]

Does anyone know how to get napster wma files to work on a XDA IIs?

Also is there an update for Windows Media Player 10 Mobile yet?

[Guest fraser]

Does anyone know how to get napster wma files to work on a XDA IIs?

Also is there an update for Windows Media Player 10 Mobile yet?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I doubt you'll ever manage that. Paying money for files with any form of DRM in them is shortsighted, as you'll only ever be able to play them in certain places. You gotta laugh at all the iPod owners who bought music for their iPod that can only ever be played on Apple approved-devices. Folk have spent a fortune on iTunes, and they are now starting to complain about how limited the media is, especially due to the fact that there was no warning stating that "the product you are about to buy is practially worthless". They paid almost CD prices and got a product that is inferiour in every way. Want to buy a Creative Rio, which is way better than an iPod? Tough, because your music won't play on it. Even the music you converted from CDs iTunes won't play. Just give more of your money to Apple. Nice business model... ;)

Until the Napster/iTunes companies sort this out, the product obtained via p2p is actually superiour to the legitimate product. Absolutely crazy! They are punishing only the legitimate users with these policies. Pirates download hacked versions and do what they want. Meanwhile, paying consumers take it up the ass.

[Guest Porkspeare]

Napster is ideal for the Media Center or even just listening to music on the PC.

If you actually buy music from them, it does enable you to burn them to cd and put the wma's on other devices. Sadly though not the XDA IIs. Gutted!!

[Guest fraser]

Napster is ideal for the Media Center or even just listening to music on the PC.

If you actually buy music from them, it does enable you to burn them to cd and put the wma's on other devices. Sadly though not the XDA IIs. Gutted!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I much prefer media where I don't need to seek permission to conduct my legal right to make a mix tape, copy it for the car and so on. The music industry is trying to gain acceptance of media that not only do you have to renew for different formats, but you are also restricted what devices you can play it on? WTF? It's your money mate!! Normally I return damaged goods to the shops...

If you can burn to CD, you could do that and then re-rip them minus the DRM. But my money says that the contract you are in with Napster doesn't allow that. But as they are being unreasonable (morality != legality) I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem, wouldn't stand up in court anyway. If it's something you need to do a lot of, buy a rewritable disk for the purpose.

Napster Media Centre I've not seen, but it looks pretty retro to me! It's all web enabled media now baby, yeah! I control my media centre via my M2000. Let's see Napster handle that! ;) Using completely free tools, I have audio throught the house running from one PC with a good soundcard in it. Can lie in bed on a Sunday morning and put on any song in my collection without moving. Great stuff! Napster was great. In 1998. ;)

[Guest Porkspeare]

Quick update, I emailed Napster support about this issue.

Their reply:

Thanks for contacting Napster Support.

Please follow the link below to an up to date list of portable devices that are compatible with Napster and Napster tracks:

Napster compatible portable devices.

We are working to add support for more devices every day.

If you have a player that does not support secured wma files, an alternative is to burn the track to CD, then rip the track to MP3.  Follow the directions below to burn you Napster track, and then rip them to MP3.

Note:  This procedure is only a suggestion.  Napster does not provide any support for this procedure other than these directions. 

Burn your Napster tracks to a CD:

1. Open Napster and login.

2. Click on the burn button (on the bottom right had side of Napster) to open the burn staging area.

3. Drag music you wish to burn into the burn staging area.

4. Insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW

5. Click the burn button to start the process.

The CD will eject when it is finished.

6.  Close the CD tray.

Rip the tracks from the CD.

1.  On the left hand side of the screen, you will notice an icon for your CD drive.  It will update to indicate that an audio CD has been inserted.

2.  The tracks will appear in your library. 

3.  Select the tracks that you wish to rip clicking “select all” button near the bottom of the library.

4.  After you have selected all of the tracks that you wish to rip, click the “rip” button.

5.  Select the format and quality that you wish to use (a 160 kbps MP3 is CD quality)

You will notice progress bars next to the tracks much like downloading.

The ripped tracks will automatically be imported to your Napster Library.

If you need help editing track information, please click here and scroll down to “Editing Imported Track Data”.

Fraser, I understand what you are saying but there has to be some measures in place to prevent people downloading music then re-distributing it. If this where possible Napster would be shut down as they would be in breach of their contract with the music companies.

[Guest fraser]

Fraser, I understand what you are saying but there has to be some measures in place to prevent people downloading music then re-distributing it. If this where possible Napster would be shut down as they would be in breach of their contract with the music companies.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I completely disagree. There is NO measure in currently in place and there never will be. It just takes ONE person to break the lock, and it's out on the net. The idea of Joe Public distributing is bogus. The people releasing files on p2p aren't consumers, they are the people that work for the distributers, pressing plants and so on. That's why the albums are gernally available on p2p a month or two before retail release.

Besides, this is counter productive. Most p2p systems nowadays download the data from multiple sources, so the more sources, the higher the availability. Years ago, a search for a popular album would retrieve hundreds of different copies, each with one or two sources. These could be quite hard to get, as you are dependant on the originator hanging around.

Consider something now that has CD-protection and DRM. Only a few people are technically skilled to extract the data. So, the copies you see on p2p have hundreds of sources,. as they are the only ones available. They are now EASIER to get illegally. Do you see my point here? On the surface, DRM makes sense. If you think it through, it's counter productive.

DRM only harms legitimate consumers, this has been studied and reported on numerous times, by some really respected industry analyists. It does however enourage you to buy more product. Remember vinyl -> tape -> cd? In each case, you re-purchased all your music again. CD should have been the last, as we have the technology to move to the next generation formats ourselves at home. Where's the profit in that? So, in comes DRM. And a lot of money for the industry, at the expense of the consumers. It doesn't even stop casual copying, the one thing that you could argue for, as you can just burn a CD for your mate.

WRT Napster's solution, that's pretty much what I suggested myself. I'm a little surprised they actually suggest re-ripping it, this is a little quasi-legal. Kudo's to them for allowing it. As an audiophile it's a little abhorrent though; you are encoding the data twice through two completely different compression codecs. That's seriously going to diminish the quality of it. Yep, you are probably right that it's the industry that forces the DRM, but they aren't all like that. eMusic for example lets you download mp3 files of a quality of your choice, which will then play on anything.

[Guest Porkspeare]

Dude, if you feel that strongly about it, tell someone who cares. I was mearly asking how to get napster wma files working on my XDA IIs. But now i know.

[Guest fraser]

Dude, if you feel that strongly about it, tell someone who cares. I was mearly asking how to get napster wma files working on my XDA IIs. But now i know.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey, sorry for the soap box, but these companies are screwing people and what else can we do but complain? ;) Me, well I'm just making sure that folk get the truth rather than the marketing.