Feelings on Napster?


Hi, Since this is in part a forum about music, I'll put this statement and question on the table. In the past few months, I've begun to use Napster online. I'll look through the forum for reccomendations on good albums and tracks, then I'll download it on Napster, take a listen and, if I like it, purchase the album. My opinion is that Napster is really opening up accessibility to music for alot of people, allowing them to try new things that before they wouldn't have access to or simply wouldn't be prepared to invest in. It's helped expand my own horizons I know and I think it's good for music overall. Any opinions?
issabre
Lshreve, Very good points, since the record companies have indeed been ripping off the public and musicians for quite some time. It's also quite funny that Napster and mp3's came along at a time when the record companies have seen their profits dipping not because of Napster (as they would have us believe) but due to the fact that vinyl to CD reissue profit machine has come to a grinding halt. Pretty soon they will be expecting most of us replace our CD's (which in many cases were replacements of LPs) with some form of Super Audio discs. No thank you. As for Napster providing an outlet for sampling items before buying - maybe that works but I've Napster to be somewhat hit or miss when doing this. As a jazz fan I feel somewhat guilty about ripping mp3's of a CD which is only going to sell 5000 to 10000 copies at best. Perhaps I should put a few samples of some artists on Napster and see what happens.
No problem with it.I explore and listen, find something interesting, I go find and buy it.RETAIL! I have no interest in downloading and copying it as the sound quality sucks .
That's not always true, and some of us suffer from retail burnout. I bet your music store loves to see you come in the door!!
karl: from your other posts, i'm sure your retailers suffer from eberhardt-burnout and hate to see you come in the door!!
Agree again. Why do you open yourself up so much, Carl. Don't you realize how many people you've offened on this site?