It rocks.
It's a stand-alone client and it weighs in at about 10-14 MB RAM when it's being used. It has a speedy web install, and it's fairly clean and usable. It isn't very frilly though, and lacks simple things like shuffle and repeat functions in the playlists. The documentation hints at a WMP9/XP integrated client but I don't know what the deal on that is.
Every song is 99? and every album is $10. They are encoded in 128 Kb/s WMA, and they download lickety-split. No delays or anything. The purchase process is quick. The licensing works like this: you can have the song "live" on three computers concurrently, and you can burn it as many times as you want. You can't burn the identical playlists a lot, but if you mix the tracks into new playlists you can burn as often as you like! It even makes CD labels... The killer feature: you can move files from computer to computer and redownload licenses and songs you already bought. That means my music will always be mine and I can get it from anywhere and use it just about any way I want, but I just can't play it on more than three devices at the same time. There is also a streaming sample for every song. If you pay $10 a month you get unlimited downloads!
It has a lot of nice community features like the ability to share playlists and see what other people are listening to. All songs and albums are organized nicely, and the music library is HUGE. I found lots of little-known songs really quickly! It has a cool magazine thing and integrated burning. It really follows the Napster spirit by embracing community and music culture.
It's also going to be integrated in Microsoft Media Center PC and bundled on Gateway computers. Spooky huh?
It's pretty good, and if you have broadband it's too convenient to pass up.
http://napster.com/ <--- I registered ahead and it doesn't seem like they are launching the final site yet. It should be up tomorrow though.
