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Napster 2.0 Beta on Oct 9th

Wednesday October 1, 2003 8:59 pm PDT by Arnold Kim
Online music downloads and music player competition is heating up... on the PC side.



Despite target dates for Napster 2.0 by Christmas, Reuters reports that Napster 2.0 will start beta testing on October 9th.



Last week, Samsung and Napster announced that they would be releasing a "Napster compatible" MP3 player, following in Apple's iPod footsteps to provide music store and audio player integration.



The importance of such integration is underscored by a CNet article that suggests that BuyMusic has failed to provide players that will play the secure WMA files that it currently offers.



Meanwhile, we are anxiously awaiting Apple's iTunes Music Store offering for the PC... which was last rumored for Mid-October.

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DeusOmnis
109 months ago
apple needs to hurry the fsck up
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obeygiant
109 months ago
Ya think they'll offer Metallica Songs?
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sososowhat
109 months ago
to call it Napster when it's quite different in spirit & concept than the original.
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RandomMacGuy
109 months ago
"Since the introduction of the iPod in blah blah blah and the introduction of the iTunes Music Store in blah blah blah everyone else has tried to catch up blah blah blah statistics blah blah blah they have yet to succeed."

Applause
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jaykk
109 months ago
here come the more competition

"Napster will offer 500,000 songs out of the gate--about twice what those competing services launched with"

Sounds like almost everyone is out to get apple. Apple indeed opened a can of worms.

Next will be M$ i guess.
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jer2665
109 months ago
i think this is terrible. It isn't napster, it isn't the same idea, same engine, i dont even think the same kid. That's just cashing in on a popular name. That's stupid. that's like taking a crappy movie, wihout tony montana, or anyone from the original scarface, or any of the story, and just because it has something to do with drugs, calling it scarface 2 (i just finished watching it again :D )

ok, so it's not exactly like that, but it's still stupid.
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coolbreeze
109 months ago
iTunes for Windows anyone? C'mon!!! Finding iTMS is going to be like "Where's Waldo" in this already saturated market. Apple seems to have shot themselves in the foot pioneering this madness!!....H-U-R-R-Y- U-P Apple!!!
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ELYXR
109 months ago
I wonder how Apple is going to implement AAC on the PC. Do you think there are issues with DRM on Windows in order to appease the record companies? I think that is why this is taking so long. My $.02
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SBG88
109 months ago
C'man, Apple will not be wholly affected by these services. I wonder how many will be left in a year. Again, of course, it will be down to Apple and Microsoft. I'm betting on the iPod this time.

BTW, the bluetooth keyboard kicks ass.
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rickvanr
109 months ago

Originally posted by ELYXR
I wonder how Apple is going to implement AAC on the PC. Do you think there are issues with DRM on Windows in order to appease the record companies? I think that is why this is taking so long. My $.02


i think thats why its taking so long
all of the itunes music store is in AAC

how easy is it to get AAC working on a windows machine?

could that be the problem?
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