Napster Overview
Napster, the self-proclaimed "pioneer of digital music," is one of the popular online music streaming subscription services. For a monthly or annual fee, users can stream music from a global catalog of 20 million songs to most brands of network media players, media streamers, network TVs, Blu-ray players, media player web browsers, and smart phones.
Like Rhapsody, its long-standing music streaming competitor, Napster excels in curated playlists and genre playlists. But it is the Napster Billboard Charts that truly make it stand out above the rest of the online music streaming subscription options
Napster's Infamous Beginnings
While Napster is now a law-abiding, legitimate music streaming service, this was not always the case. In fact, Napster was a forerunner in peer-to-peer media file sharing that brought about lawsuits resulting in copyright infringement rulings that affect how we listen to music online today.
Napster was originally created in June 1999 by Shawn Fanning at Boston's Northeastern University; some say that Sean Parker was also a founder. Fanning built a website to share his music that he ripped from CDs to his computer and get music from others who shared on his site. Neither musicians nor record companies could collect royalties on the pirated music. When the band Metallica discovered that some tracks from an unreleased album were circulating around the web and being played on radio stations, the band claimed that Napster was guilty of copyright infringement and did not have the right to share these songs. Metallica filed a lawsuit against Napster in December 1999, followed shortly by a lawsuit from rapper Dr. Dre.
The lawsuits led to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which has since helped to protect the rights of musicians and record companies. This act requires that webcasters must have permission to transmit (stream) music (streaming) over the internet requires permission or it will be considered copyright infringement. The webcasters must pay licensing fees to record companies and obtain permission from the musicians or record company.
Napster was bought in 2002 by Roxio and was acquired by Best Buy in September 2008.
Napster's Billboard Charts
If hearing a song ever brought you back to an event in your life — your freshman year in high school, your graduation, your first kiss, when you served in the military, the birth of your child — you can appreciate Napster's Billboard Charts feature. Napster has playlists for Billboard Charts dating back to 1955.
The Billboard Charts cover more than pop music. Users can choose from the top music in Pop/Rock, Country, R&B/Hip-Hop and Jazz. There are also categories for the "Hot 100 Tracks" for each year as well as the top 200 albums. These music lists are not just the end-of-the-year countdowns. Each year is broken down by season, so you can hear the best music from that final semester in college or what you were listening to during your baby's first Christmas.
Napster also keeps current, offering the newest releases and creating playlists of the best of today's music. In fact, every Tuesday there are new music releases are made available.
Napster Has "Automix" and Plenty of Themed Playlists and Curated Radio Stations
While there are times when you might want to choose every song and create a queue, frequently we find ourselves wanting to just listen to a mix of songs. Playlists, "radio stations" and the automix feature makes it easier to play music you like. Napster has created more than 2,000 themed playlists from mainstream themes to offbeat collections like "Wild About Monkeys," featuring songs with apes in their titles; "Religious Chants," "Saturday Morning Cartoons," and comedy routines about cats and dogs.
By Genre and Subgenres
The collections of music by genre include subgenres for specific moods or featuring specific artists.
By Category
While genres of music are the basic types of music, from Jazz to Classical to Electronica, categories of music are about specific concepts, moods, eras or occasions when you want to play music. Category playlists include Happy, Sad, Romantic, and Find 'em First, Best of, Workout and Party.
Napster also includes playlists featuring the "best of" a specific artist — "Best of Chris Rock," "Best of Dean Martin," "Best of Chris Botti," 27 years of Weird Al Yankovic, and dozens more. On the flip side there are "artist picks" playlists that include the favorite songs from celebrities, musicians and even sports figures.
Perhaps you are looking to relax. Just as the genre lists have subgenres, there are sub-categories within the lists of categories to help you dial in not only the exact mood you want to create for a particular occasion, but your preferences too. There is a playlist for your "Cinco De Mayo" party. The Workout music offers a huge variety of sub-categories that cater to the type of music you like to work out to, from Hip Hop to Country to "Worship" music to make your gym time a religious experience. The Romantic category includes these sub-categories: Amy Grant Love Songs, Bedroom Rhythm, Classic Rock Valentine, a Love Affair, and classic artists including Doris Day, Mel Tormé, Julie London and Lena Horne.
Automix and Radio Stations
If you have a song running through your head and want to hear music similar to the song, Napster has an "automix" feature. Play the song that you would like to use as the basis for your custom "radio station" and you can bring up the option to create an automix of similar music. Unlike Pandora's stations, you can skip around the automix and even save it as a playlist to enjoy at another time.
The term "radio station" has a different meaning in the world of music streaming subscription sites. This is not internet radio; instead, it is simply a genre of music or comedy that has been expertly curated as though a radio station's music director had put together the playlist. Napster has 64 radio stations, ranging from "movie scores" to "Comedy" to "Dance" to "Disco Dynamite."
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