Napster: close but no cigar

I finally got around to trying out the new Napster music service and I have to say I am pretty impressed. Not with the technology, that is somewhat buggy, but with the value of their $9.95 a month subscription service. Not to make this sound like a Napster commercial but... when I can stream or download (yes, download!) as much as I want or can listen to for $9.95 a month I think I'm going to be pretty happy. Yes, its true that they only have a million or so tracks and there are some big omissions (wot, not Beatles?), but almost anyone can eat vast tracts of time finding music they have never heard before.

The thing that breaks the deal for me is that I can download the music for offline use, and offline use on at least three computers, so effectively by three different people. That doesn't apply to streaming, only one person gets to stream or listen to their radio stations at a time (or you will be forced to login after each track) but three computers playing saved music is not bad. Naturally if you believe DRM on your music is evil then you'll hate Napster since if you stop subscribing all those tracks will suddenly become useless. But my opinion is that for the $120 I'd spend on Napster subscription I'd get way more utility from it than I will ever get from the 10 CDs worth of store bought music that represents. And if you really want to own the music you can still buy it just as like you do with iTunes or Microsoft Music - at $0.99 a track.