Overview:
Napster is one of the most popular music download sites on the web.
It is a great "unlimited" service, but do to high traffic, email customer service response time took longer. This service works great, and the downloads are fast.
Membership Price:
$14.95 per Month
Payment Type:
Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Disc.
Operating Systems:
Windows, Mac, Linux
Refund Policy:
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
We definitely recommend Napster because they have possibly the deepest selection of music of any service we reviewed. There are two downsides. They are not iPod compatible and the service is pricey.
File Selection: Napster claims to provide "unlimited access to 3 million songs." I was not able to validate this information, but of the 250 songs I searched for, I had a 100 percent success rate.
My search consisted of multiple genres including rock, hip hop, heavy metal, punk, country, gospel, classical, pop, jazz, hard-to-finds, & modern music.
Download Speed: Downloading files on Napster easily met the FreeMusicReviews minimum acceptable standard (75% of downloads should take 2 minutes or less on a DSL connection), and most downloads were extremely fast (taking less than 30 seconds to complete). It does take significantly longer to download larger files like games and movies, but Free-Music-Downloads was exceptionally fast even with larger files.
If you are using dialup connectivity, expect a significantly slower experience.
Sound Quality: After downloading over 250 songs, I have concluded that Napster has exceptional sound quality. Everyone that hears my cd's and MP3 files on my player can't believe the files are burned.
Napster is the best site I have reviewed when it comes to sound quality. I would highly recommend it for this reason alone.
Customer Service: The Customer Service team at Napster were very helpful and courteous, answering all of
my questions thoroughly, and in a timely manner.
There really is a team of technical experts
working in the background at Napster. The technical issues have been few and far between; however,
upon requesting assistance from their support team, I received the answers that a beginner would need to successfully start his/her downloading experience.
Ease of Use: Napster offers cutting-edge software that
makes downloading your favorite high-quality music a breeze. My biggest concern is that the downloads are not iPod compatible; however, Napster downloads will run on any other mp3 player.
Software Compatibility: Napster offers software for most versions of Windows (95, 98, ME,
NT, 2000 and XP), as well as Mac (OS X and Classic) and
Linux. Again, this service is not iPod compatible.
Exchange/Refund Policy: Free-Music-Downloads is
one of the few services that offers (and honors) a 100%
customer satisfaction guarantee.
The "hotest" service in early 2007 is eMusic. This is an awesome service that has two major benefits. One is that they are 100% compatible with any mp3 player including iPod and compatible with MACs. Another is that their free trial allows you to download and keep any 25 songs at no cost.
This site offers unlimited access to 2 million cd quality files including all of the biggest artists, and most of those "hard to find" favorites. My overall experience was GREAT! You pay for each download on Yahoo!, but the site has all the music you could ever want AND you know you are helping the Artists.
A great service that is limited geographically to the United States. Real Rhapsody created an easy, fast and secure music downloading environment. This service is great and they offer some other added
benefits including their free 14 day trial.
eMusic continues to be "hot" in LEGAL music downloading. This is an awesome service that has two major benefits. One is that they are 100% compatible with any mp3 player including iPod and compatible with MACs. Another is that their free trial allows you to download and keep any 25 songs at no cost.
Good! 
