XM + Napster

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Product summary

XM + Napster has some headway to make before it's ready for the mainstream.

CNET editors' take

Reviewed by: Troy Dreier
Edited by: Jasmine France
Reviewed on: 01/27/2006
Released on: 11/21/2005

XM Satellite Radio and Napster are both ambitious companies, so it's a surprise that the beta version of their new integrated service is so paltry. In its current state, the service will certainly leave customers underwhelmed and disappointed. However, if XM and Napster add a lot of advanced features to the final version, we'll pretend this ugly incident never happened.

XM + Napster's main screen, listing the channels with a brief description.

To use XM + Napster, download the latest version of Napster and select XM Radio Online from the Radio pull-down menu. First-time users will need to enter their XM account number, found by going to channel 000 on your XM receiver. The interface lists the various genres down the left side and presents a three-tab view of the channels in the center. The first tab lists all the channels with a brief description of each, and the second tab lists what's currently playing on each one. It takes a few seconds for your computer to get this information, so occasionally, you'll go to a station and find the song you wanted is already over. In the third tab, you can see your 10 favorite channels.

If the currently playing song isn't available for download, there won't be a download link in the upper-right corner.

Upside: The synergistic payoff of having XM and Napster together is that listeners can instantly buy songs they hear on the XM channels--that is, if those songs are in the Napster library. If they have Napster To Go service, which allows unlimited, untethered downloads for $14.99 per month, they can download songs that will sync with WMA DRM 10 portables. Content we downloaded and purchased transferred perfectly to a Philips portable. As with the browser version, you can save your favorite channels as presets.

The Presets tab, showing the user's 10 favorite channels.

See more CNET content tagged:: XM Satellite Radio,; Napster Inc.,; channel,; station,; song

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