Through most of the last century can you imagine what would have happened to some poor guy who speculated that someday we would use the same instrument to call our business colleagues and play our favorite music. Of course, almost all new mobile phones can do that and much more.
Imagine trying to explain the Internet to someone as recently as the 1970’s. I tried…unsuccessfully. Furthermore, as late as the early part of the last decade of the twentieth century, our current Internet speed would have seemed more of a distant hope than a short term reality. Wrong! Ten years later the majority of us are connect to broadband services. Streaming music to our desktops is no longer interrupted by frequent pauses to resupply the buffer of our memory.
Napster.com, the same business that started as just a vehicle for peer-to-peer music exchanges, has now become the owner of the largest music catalog on the Internet, with over seven million titles. It is still a terrific bargain, even though it is no longer free in the days when it was in hot water with the music industry. The site provides what is widely regarded as the greatest bargain for music fans with a three month introductory subscription, with renewals at the same low rates. I suspect you’ll renew, but the three months will give you a good taste of the service.
For a remarkably low price, you receive five download credits and special bonus download credits as a subscription bonus. You also get unlimited streaming audio, which, believe me is great! You can listen to the entire catalogs of your favorite artists or, if you prefer, entire albums of a variety of artists. They have over a thousand pre-made mix lists, and those are interactive. There are streaming radio stations, too.
The music that you select to download as part of your subscription can be played on any MP3 device, including Ipod, Zune and many others. A lot of newer cell phones have built in MP3 players and sufficient memory to hold a number of your favorite selections, as well.
You have unrestricted rights to these recordings, so you can move them around to different devices that you own. You can even burn a CD for yourself.
Any musical genre you can think of is well represented. If you are similar to me, you choose from a lot of different genres, but if your tastes are more specific, you will certainly find your favorite genre. The list is huge, but a few of the genres are jazz, pop, rock, Christian, children, comedy, country and the list goes on….
You can surround yourself with your own selected music and never repeat a song for three months for only fifteen dollars at Napster.com. Face it, that’s cheaper than a fast food lunch for three.
