Napster extends music streaming service to mobile devices
The new service gives users instant access to the full Napster catalogue of more than 15 million songs through their mobile device.
For £10 a month, Napster is now available on mobile devices including iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android.
Napster Unlimited Plus Mobile combines mobile music streaming with the ability to save music to play offline, in the same way as rivals such as Spotify.
Subscribers will also have access to Napster's other features such as playlists, radio stations and recommendations from the Napster music team.
The full £10/month service comprises:
• Unlimited mobile streaming over both wi-fi and 2.5/3G.
• Instant music playback on mobile devices
• Mobile access to Napster's feature set including new releases, recommendations, official music charts, Napster's top 100 charts, and Automix
• Offline mobile access to the last 100 played tracks and saved playlists, albums and artists so music is always available even without a mobile connection
• Web-based access from any computer, without having to download any software
• Automatic synchronisation of playlists on PC, web, mobile and integrated audio devices, with instant and automatic update of changes
There is also a £5 per month home entertainment streaming-only subscription option, allowing users to gain access to the entire online catalogue via PCs, internet connected TVs and wireless home audio devices.
The mobile app is available now in the the Apple App Store and Android Market.
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Comments
I am torn on the same issue
FYI,
The Napster music that is downloaded to your computer is in MP3 format at 256 Kbps stereo. Tracks streamed on your computer are offered at 128Kbps. Mobile tracks are streamed at 64Kbps. This high-quality allows you to get the most enjoyment from your music however you choose to listen to it
(From Napsters website)
not the highest quality but the choice is there
spotify on the other hand
We use the Ogg Vorbis format for streaming. There are three quality ratings that we use:
Note: not all tracks are currently available in high bitrate
.Desktop: Streams are q5 quality. Premium subscribers can enable higher bit rate streaming at q9 from the preferences menu.
Mobile: A higher quality q5 is offered, along with a “low bandwidth” option of q3. You can choose separate qualities ratings for streaming and synching in the More tab of your Spotify mobile app.
so spotify offer a higher quality on your mobile device but have a smaller library and therefore less selection
also intresting that not everything is availible in 320kbps? would be intersting to find out how much of there library is availible in the higher quality.
would be intresting to hear peoples thoughts on this?
Thanks for that, I'll stay where I am then.
Spotify - 160kbps/320kbps
Napster - 64kbps
Tried a couple of sample 30sec on my iPhone (as my Napster account is lapsed) of chart songs I know well (Adele - Rolling in the Deep, Rihanna - S&M, Lady GaGa - Born This Way, Cee Lo Green - Bright Lights Bigger City) & it sounds absolutely horrible on a pair of Shure E3Cs.
The good things about Napster is that they'll allow you to stream from 3 (?) locations, whereas Spotify limit to one device at a time. Their catalogue is more extensive, Spotify has some noteable ommissions (Adele - 21) and will only allow exclusives for albums which will be available for all users after a month. If they changed this, they'd probably be able to fill most of the gaps.
This is interesting. I stream from Spotify all day at work to my HTC Desire, anyone out there think Napster is better than Spotify? Is there a big difference in the record abels they have signed up, or the audio quality?
I am generally very happy with Spotify but would consider a change.