Generally credited with starting the online music revolution, Napster started out as a free P2P file sharing community, but was forced to shut down for legal reasons. The service came back in 2002 offering legally-available, subscription-based music downloads. Napster membership includes a free7-day Trial, after which you choose from two levels of membership: Napster To Go, or Napster. The latter allows you to play songs on your PC only, while the former permits downloading songs onto any compatible mp3 player. Plus, Napster's new online service lets people create free accounts that can stream almost any title from Napster's catalog of more than 2 million songs, representing all the major record labels, as well as some Indy labels.

Napster.com has a polished interface and is also very easy to use. When your compatible MP3 is connected, you can see its icon in the bottom right of the Napster user interface screen - to copy songs to your MP3 player you simply drag and drop them onto the icon. Belonging to Napster.com has a lot of benefits. As a member, you can choose from over 50 commercial-free radio stations, create custom playlists to share with your friends and enjoy Napster on your home stereo. Napster's music files are of outstanding crystal-clear quality. In addition, and endless number of music files can be queued up for automatic download (though the Napster interface will only actually download 2 at any one time). Downloads are adware, spyware and virus free and customer service is excellent.

On the downside, some have criticized Napster.com for a graphically intense user interface that some people may find confusing and for having difficulty recognizing when a compatible MP3 player is connected. Further, critics point out that Songs streamed with Naspter.com's free account can be played only five times. Plus, free streaming doesn't work on Apple's Safari browser or Internet Explorer for Mac, and it has glitches with Firefox on a Mac. Virgin Digital and Yahoo Music Unlimited both offer cheaper subscription plans, and Napster's library doesn't monitor music folders for files created in other programs. Still, for those who want to explore the world of music downloading and are willing to pay for membership, Napster is not a bad choice.