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Napster adds support for more portable MP3 players

2 February 2004 13:10 by Petteri "dRD" Pyyny

The P2P-turned-legal-musicstore service Napster, which is owned by Roxio, announced last week that it has increased the number of portable digital audio players that its service supports from just one to 60 devices.

All of the devices are capable of playing Microsoft's DRM-equipped WMA audio format, the format of choice that is used by Napster. With the portable device support, the Napster 2.0 application that acts as the front-end to the online music store, can recognize the authorized device when it is connected to PC's USB port and based on the unique identifier that the portable device sends to the PC, can allow transferring the purchased tracks to the device. System works pretty much like Apple's iTunes that allows transferring tracks to Apple's own iPod audio player. Of course, the problem that Napster faces is the fact that iPod has managed to achieve a status of a culture icon -- specially in the States -- rather than a nice piece of consumer electronics, and Napster doesn't support iPod (as iPod doesn't support WMA files).

Napster also added a possibility to get discounted download prices for users who are willing to buy in bulk. Napster users can now buy packs of 15, 25 or 50 tracks, priced at $13.95, $21.95 or $39.95. All downloaded tracks can be burned to an audio CD or transferred to a portable device.

Source: IDG.com.sg

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