Napster is missing me: "Please come back Ewan"
I had a Napster account for about a year. I hardly used it. I got it because I felt a bit guilty using iTunes. I thought I should spread the love a little bit.
My account stopped a while ago. I can’t quite remember why — I think my credit card expired and I never renewed it.
I got an email through today with this:
‘We’ve missed you at Napster and would love to welcome you back’
Fair enough.
I thought I’d check back and see what players their service works on. I clicked on to Compatible Devices on their site and got the same stupid list from a year ago (there might be a few additions but not much)….
Audiovox SMT5600 Smart Phone
Creative Zen Micro Photo
Creative Zen Micro (4GB, 5GB, 6GB) Firmware/Driver Updates
Creative Zen Portable Media Center Firmware/Driver Updates
Creative Zen Touch Firmware/Driver Updates
Creative Zen Vision:M (30GB, 60GB)
Creative Zen V Plus
Creative Zen Vision W
HP iPaq HW6515
i-mate PDA2k Firmware/Driver Updates
i-mate SP3/SP3i Firmware/Driver Updates
iRiver H10 Pure (5GB, 6GB) Firmware/Driver Updates
iRiver PMC-120 Firmware/Driver Updates
iRiver T10 (512MB, 1GB) Firmware/Driver Updates
iRiver T20 Firmware/Driver Updates *
iRiver T30 (512MB, 1GB) Firmware/Driver Updates
iRiver U10 Firmware/Driver Updates *
Motorola Moto Q
Orange SPV C500 Firmware/Driver Updates
Orange SPV M5000 Firmware/Driver Updates
Dell Pocket DJ Firmware/Driver Updates
Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox Firmware/Driver Updates
Palm Treo smartphone (select models) Pocket Tunes software required
Palm Tungsten handhelds (select models) Pocket Tunes software required
Palm Zire handhelds (select models) Pocket Tunes software required
Palm LifeDrive mobile manager Pocket Tunes software required
Rio Carbon (5GB, 6GB) Firmware/Driver Updates
Rio Carbon Pearl Firmware/Driver Updates
Rio ce2100 Firmware/Driver Updates
Rio ce2110 (2.5GB) Firmware/Driver Updates
Samsung i300 Firmware/Driver Updates
Samsung YH-999 Portable Media Center Firmware/Driver Updates
Samsung YH-925
Samsung YP-Z5
Samsung YPT75
SanDisk Sansa M200 Series
T-Mobile MDA Pro
Toshiba Gigabeat (10GB, 20GB, 40GB, 60GB)
Yup. Napster’s dead.
Here we all are consistently thinking about Vodafone launching MusicStation/OmniPhone, Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch and so on… and Napster are still banging along with support for Creative Zen MP3 players. Fine. That’ll get you 0.5% of the marketplace. What about everyone else on the planet that DOESN’T have an MP3 player, but DOES have a Nokia, or a Sony Ericsson, or a Samsung………..
Napster have been spectacularly rubbish at introducing any compatibility at all.
Orange have gone and built their own music store. Nokia’s busy doing the same. What the hell is Napster doing, sat in the corner without any friends? They’ve got a compelling service that, if it was properly integrated into just one major mobile platform, would be a good competitor and possibly an iPhone killer.
IF my Nokia N95 WORKED PROPERLY with music — along the lines of iTunes or along the lines of how Napster-To-Go works, that would be thoroughly, thoroughly compelling.
Gahhh.
You can get individual tracks working on a Motorola M25 and an M500… there are three Samsung handsets that require, it seems, a firmware upgrade to work with Napster… (more info here). Add on a few Windows Mobile / SmartPhone devices and that’s it.
Useless.
Maybe no one wanted to play with Napster?
