It's hard to believe that it's been a full decade since Napster brought file sharing into the homes of zillions and brought the music industry to its knees. Since then, scores of file sharing services have sprung up and Napster has attempted a comeback or two and been slapped down with lawsuits. But both DownloadSquad and Hypebot.com are reporting today that good ol' Napster is back (again) after many legal battles -- and with a new business model.
Here's how it works. Napster's new owner, Best Buy, will let you download and keep five DRM-free MP3 tracks a month along with unlimited streaming access to Napster's library, which includes some seven million tracks. The unlimited streaming seems like (pardon the pun) the best buy. Think of it as Internet radio on demand.
There is also a yearly plan for $60, which lets you have access to an on-demand music service and 60 commercial-free internet radio stations.
DownloadSquad points out the bad side of all this is the streaming music service "is no use on the go" and requires a computer, not an MP3 player for the streaming audio. Then again, there's also Napster's older "Napster To Go" service, where you can also download DRMed tracks to your portable device.









