Napster is a music-sharing program where people from across the world put music on their computers for other people to download. Napster has millions of user and many different servers. As well as these millions of users, there is me, and I use Napster as much as I can. To me Napster is not a program, which you can just download songs for free off it so you do not have to bother going out to pay for them. No instead, it is three things:
1) A service which allows me to download any song which I want so that when I am working on my computer I do not have to bother with CDs, tapes or bring down my radio player. Instead, I just download songs, add them to my play list and play them. Instead of changing CD, every song slowing me down in what I am doing. Yes, I am listening to it whilst I am writing this (Limp Bizkit my way or the highway brilliant song).
2) I also use Napster in a more useful way. I hear about a song or the end of it, which sounds like it is worth getting. So what do I do? I do not go straight out and buy it because I might not like it, nor do I wait to listen to it on the radio I just log onto Napster and download it. If I like it, I will then go out and buy the single.
3) The other thing I use it for is my MP3 player. For those who do not know Napster allows users to share MP3 files. An MP3 player is like a mini disc player except its small and you do not need a CD. Instead, it uses the music, which has been changed into the MP3 files, so that it can be transferred onto the player. Then you put the headphones in your ears and press play. I find it a great way to play music in public places or on public transport when I am bored. I do not download songs only for my MP3 player either. If I have the CD, I download the song so that I can listen to it on my MP3 player.
Whilst using the Napster program there are various sections of the programs and now I am going to take a minute talking you through them if you do not mind:
CHAT – This option seems pointless to me never mind. When you first click this button, it gives you links to parts of Napster’s websites, which could be useful to you or interesting to read about. Also if you send an instant message to someone and they do not answer it will tell you if they are ignoring you if they are not then it will stay the same. Down in the bottom right hand corner there is a button called chat. Click on this and the option chat becomes available. First of all the main chat rooms appear e.g. 70’s, 80’s, pop, R&B and many more. Click on join takes you to the room, which is highlighted so if pop is highlighted then you will go into that room.
Clicking on view all allows you to view all of the chat room, which you are able to go into. The only other button left to click is called create. Clicking create gives you the option of creating your own chat room so that other people can join. You may be wondering why I said chat rooms are pointless and here is my reason. They are pointless because when I go in them I say hello ad with about 30 people in the room 1 person says hello. I keep talking but no one else does. I stay in for about half an hour not saying anything look back and scroll up the screen and find that only a few other people have tried to talk but other than that it is just people going in and out. Although the rooms can be handy because say if the room is called 80’s then those people should have many files from the 80’s which you want to download.
MY FILES – this part of Napster shows you all your MP3 files, which you can, they play using Napster. In this part you can add song to your play list by highlighting the song and then clicking add button beside the play list. Once you have added the amount of songs you want double click on the top song and Napster will then play through all the songs on your play list. As well as telling you what songs you have, it tells you where that particular song is located, filesize, bitrate, frequency and the length of the song.
SEARCH – This is where you search for the songs, which you are looking for. To do this you need to first type in the artists name e.g. Limp Bizkit, then the title of the song e.g. my way or the highway then you click find it. If you just want to find all the songs for say Limp Bizkit then you just type Limp Bizkit as the artist and press find it. If you want to get either the best quality song or smallest file size possible then you click on advance and do the following:
Bitrate – Now bitrate is the quality of the song and also determines how big it is. There are different numbers of bitrate you can search for from 24 KB/s to 256 KB/s. Most files are 128 bitrate, which is CD quality, and usually take up between 2 and 8 megabytes of space depending on how long the song is. I like to download small files so I can fit more on my MP3 player. Therefore, I usually search for at best 96 KB/s and because they are not many it also gives me the ones, which are less than 96 KB/s, which is good.
Connection: There are many types of connection speeds (the same as your modem e.g. 56k modem) so I usually search for people who have a 56k modem like me or higher. Therefore, I search for at least a 56k modem and this usually produces the best results in my opinion.
HOT LIST – This is the hot list page. If you have any friends who use Napster (I’m lucky my two friends which I actually have use it) then you can add their screen names to your hot list. When they come onto Napster, you can then talk to them. As well as this you are able to browse their files to see what songs they have and if they have ones you want to download then you can download them.
Another added bonus is that if you are downloading off someone and you think that they might have some more songs that you like then right click on their name and click browse files.
TRANSFER – Well this is simple enough, this part is where your songs go when you are downloading them. The ones you are downloading are put under inbound transfers and the ones other people are downloading off you go under outbound transfers. When you download a song this section tells you the song you are downloading, who you are downloading off, the file size, status, speed, progress, rate and how much time is left.
Now onto the subject about Napster being illegal. I see no reason why it should be. Ok so it breeches copyright laws by people taking the music off the CDs, putting it on their computers and then allowing people to download it. The real reason why the companies are so angry with Napster it is because they think they will lose loads of money by people downloading the songs rather than buying them. I do not that is the case. Ok so quite a few people download songs so they do not have to buy them, but there are any people who still go out and buy the CDs (Me for one). Not everyone in the entire UK or America or anywhere else has the Internet so they are unable to use Napster and therefore still go out and buy the CDs. I admit there are the odd songs, which I download and do not go out and by the CDs for, but most of them are ones like Weird Al Yankovic.
Overall, I do not think there is anything bad about Napster at all and tome it is one of the best things on the internet and a great way to hear the songs before I go and buy them and best of all it is free. If it was not free then depending on how much you had to pay, I probably would not use it.
Hope this helps you! :O)