Why I love Napster

I love Napster because I can rent all the music I care to listen to for $9.95 on three PCs.

And it's a big reason why I don't own a iPod (yet).

I sit at home working on the PC so I can fire up Napster, create playlists and listen away during the day. At night or offsite, I can work on my laptop with the headphones plugged in.

The main reason and I think where the real value comes in with the Napster service is the song lookup. I was watching an old episode of Alias and like most TV shows, there's a song that closes out the episode that ties in all the emotions. Sydney just built a baby crib and Michael, the father is gone... so the background song playing has a key word of "water" - So I fire up Napster, search for "water" and narrow the choice down to "The Water Is Wide" by Karla Bonoff

THE WATER IS WIDE

The water is wide, I can't cross over
and neither I have wings to fly
give me a boat that can carry two
and both shall row - my love and I

Now love is gentle, and love is kind
the sweetest flower when first it's new
but love grows old, and waxes cold
and fades away like morning dew

There is a ship, she sails the sea
she's loaded deep as deep can be
but not as deep as the love I'm in
I know not how I sink or swim

The water is wide, I can't cross over
and neither I have wings to fly
give me a boat that can carry two
and both shall row - my love and I
and both shall row - my love and I

With Napster, I can select all the titles and listen to them all (full length - not a snippet) and toss out the versions I don't care for. (I kept 64 versions of The Water is Wide).

Naspter has allowed me to expand my musical tastes - I may hear a song on Lightning100, note the title and when I get home do a search. I've discovered music by Beth Orton, Dido, Sarah McLachlan, The Sundays while catching up on some new releases from artists that I use to listen to like EmmyLou Harris. There is also a listing of Billboard songs, so Napster is a great resource for oldies, the British Invasion, progressive rock - you will find what you're looking for. For a mere $9.95 a month, the value of having access to a 1.5 million song, mother of all iPods is a good value proposition.

The bummer is that Napster is not available for the Mac...