Wired for Sound

OMG! Napster has finally gone apple here in the UK.

I do believe it was way back in September last year that napster announced it's iPhone app was coming to the UK. Blogs went crazy, tech magazines went into overdrive - the granddaddy of music downloading was back in the game. OK, so I'm exaggerating slightly but I think you catch my drift.

Unfortunately there was then a pregnant pause, of about 9 months, until the thing finally went live last month. The fanfare seems to have been scaled back so much this time around that I actually heard nothing, nada. I just happened to be telling my sister how I couldn't wait to get rid of my spotify subscription when the napster app finally arrived, and managed to stumble on it. I guess the napster marketing team were scared of another disappointment so muffled the fanfare.

Anyway, no use crying over spilt milk it's here now and that's all that matters. Now people will see how second-rate spotify really is. Napster wins hands down in terms of back catalogue, user interface and functionality. And all this just in time for my latest favourite purchase, my ipad2. Whoop whoop!!!!

Napster for iPhone Uk

Somebody somewhere please sort it out. Have now been using spotify subscription for over 6 months and it just doesn't cut it.

Why oh why oh why is this so hard

And if it's in the US then why not here?

And then 'the industry' wonders why illegal downloading goes on. Probably because the greed and lack of competition in certain services makes it difficult, for those that want to legitimately pay for e-music, to access it in a way that suits them.

Disgruntled of Shropshire

Wanted: iphone music subscription

I'm not the first, and I won't be the last, but when will we get more choice around downloadable music on a subscription basis, for iphone??!!

For me, this is currently the biggest drawback with iphone, and was almost a reason for me going with nokia over Apple. I simply must have my music collection with me wherever I am, and I need to limit the number of devices I'm carrying, hence phone must double as an mp3 player.

I chose iphone because I eventually decided all of the other functionality outweighed the music thing (!) But I was ecstatic when I discovered the spotify subscription. My initial take on spotify was that it wouldn't fly unless it could go mobile and I think I have been proved right. That is, assuming they are making money out of this of course. It could not have been cheap to get Apple to agree to an itune 'competitor' on its devices, but then I guess Apple's main thing is not content, because as we all know all digital content will soon be 'free' of sorts (discuss)

So where are the others? I thought they would be piling in? I really don't get it. Perhaps napster have lost the spunk they first started with back in the pirate days, and the new Swedish kids on the block are now the ones pushing the boundaries, even securing the offline access before Rhapsody - the only other (as far as I know) iphone subscription service, in the US.

Now we just need films and books on the same basis...