Good, but you can get addicted (Napster)

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Product:	Napster
Date:	24/12/00 (1 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of Users, Lots of Tracks

Disadvantages: Boring Community Areas, Too Many Politics

Let us put aside the ethics of Napster and all related communities for a mere moment and actually look at the program and the community of Napster, itself.

The Premise

Search and download music files from other users' computers. On your own computer, you denote which folders you're willing to allow people to download from, and you keep the music you don't mind sharing within those folders. When someone wants to download a song and they find you through a search, they connect to you and download your music.

What You Get

Napster is a pretty nifty program that runs on a relatively low amount of RAM and allows you to download the music you want from any user connected.

Above the generally-used buttons, you have a quick link to File, where you'll be able to connect, disconnect, and set your preferences (an area which I found agreeable). Actions include instant messages to other users, hot lists, user information, and chats.

Most widely seen and used are the bigger buttons:

Home has the latest news from Napster, though lately I've seen it be nothing but more babbling about the RIAA and related topics, even to the point of giving users names and addresses of record labels to get them to harrass them about Napster. I realize that a lot of people like this service, but I think this is a little much. I'm probably different than most, though. I can take Napster or leave it. I'm indifferent.

Beyond the political hype is Chat, where you can go and discuss music with just about anyone else connected to the program at the time. There are, of course, also user-created rooms, which could make for some interesting fun. I have yet to find the most stimulating chat on Napster, but it'll pass the time if you've got nothing better to do.

Library is a list of files on your local computer that you've downloaded and/or are sharing, depending on where you set your preferen
ces to put down and pick up files. There is the option to play files here, though I've found the sound quality to be less than stellar (hence Winamp).

Search is, by far, the portion of the program you'll probably end up spending most of your time in. You can search by artist and title, plus include bitrate, connection, and ping time in your results as an advanced search. I've found that my searches work about 50% of the time because of my taste in music. Very few people actually have heard of Forbidden Zone (Elfman) and even less have recorded its soundtrack to mp3. If you're into popular music, you'll probably always find what you're looking for, but if you're into more obscure stuff, it might be a bit more difficult.

With Hotlist, you can add filenames and users so for later communication. Napster, to me, is sort of something that I don't care to do, so I have yet to use this function. Transfer gives you a listing of files that you are currently downloading, or waiting to download, along with a listing and information of who is downloading from you. It's helpful to have in case you wish to disconnect from Napster, but don't wish to cut off the people that are downloading from you. Discover is just one of those things that one has to be open to. I don't find most of their selections overly stimulating to the point of purchase, and I probably never will.

Is It Worth It?

Napster, as an idea, is good. I think that some of the politics that are thrown into your face the second you open the program are a little out-of-place, but I do understand why they're doing that. I'm not overly fond of the community chat and participation aspects, but if I'm looking for a rare track, chances are I will find it, and that's what is important, right?

Summary: