I was reading an article on this awful new napster venture, Napster To Go, in the paper this morning. It got a bit hype because they had a Super Bowl ad last night. I mentioned to someone at the party that, though they did not mention it anywhere in the commercial, that as soon as you end your subscription to the service, your media will no longer work. I was asked how that was possible and I was honest and had no idea. The article I read this morning briefly mentions how, so I thought I would share for those who were curious.
Apparently the Microsoft DRM that is built into these files has a timer. Only certain media players (Creative Zen Micro, Dell JukeBox and the iRiver) are able to play these special DRM’ed files. When the timer expires, the media will no longer work on the player. Anytime you synch your device with your computer it will check to see if your subscription is still active and if it is, it will reset the timer. So, basically it forces you to synch regularly so they it can check the status of your subscription.
Its an interesting idea, though I dislike anything that restricts the use of something you buy. As far as I’m concerned, when you buy something, you buy to own. Leaving that aside, it is still not financially worth it, I would think. The math they showed on the commercial was misleading. This Napster service will cost about 15 bucks a month. The average album is about 9.99 to 13.99 depending where you go. Potentially thats an album and a half a month. I don’t know about most people but I don’t buy an album a month unless there is something I like and there has been next to nothing I’ve liked lately. I suppose it might add up if you buy more than 12 albums a year, but lets not forget that you are not paying to own in this case. You are effectively leasing the album you are paying for.
I just have a thing about paying for things that I won’t end up owning, I suppose.
Leave a Reply