[ On the Napster message boards, a fellow community member posted a note about the concept of music ownership and -- knowing I have strong feelings about this issue -- invited me to reply. Below is my response. - Adam]

I think the concept of ownership in the Digital Age is both fascinating and frustrating. The real problem facing the RIAA, artists, and consumers isn't copying; that's just a symptom. Instead, what concerns me is the public's current inability to recognize art as EXPERIENCES, not THINGS.

What this means is that, in an optimum world (economically and artistically), music is *NOT* viewed or treated as couches or jelly beans or flashlights or cars.

While physical objects (especially, well, cars), may occasionally elicit strong emotions, they are in and of themselves valuable and functional in their presence. Music (as, I'd suggest, any other form of art as well), is contrastingly interesting / useful / in-mind even when not present.

CDs, as a physical manifestation, evoke and symbolize the traits of art, but (with, again, few exceptions) are not art themselves.

Feeling lonely and unsure about life, I decided to turn to a trusty source.

Below is our IM conversation:

[ This is the final and third part of my Napster 2.0 music service review. If you haven't read the other parts, I encourage you to start at part one of my Napster review -- Adam ]

In this final section of my Napster review, I'll be covering these remaining topics:
- Radio
- Music info
- Non-music offerings
- Overall user interface
- Pricing and value

If you're not already a Napster user, I encourage you to download and try out the software for free as you read along here

One of the hardest things I've had to face is the fact that it's very difficult -- and perhaps not necessarily optimal -- to be liked, much less loved by everyone, all the time.

This may seem like an especially obvious notion, but hear me out

A few weeks ago, I posted a note on a prominent swing board urging dancers to "Just Say No" when they really don't feel like dancing with someone. The gist of my note was as follows:

[...] I'd like to go against conventional wisdom and practice and urge people to say NO when asked to dance if saying yes would result in misery for both dancers.

With regards to the three awful dances I had recently, in each case, the follow accepted my invitation quite reluctantly. Maybe she just learned that her pet poodle died, maybe I look like her abusive ex-boyfriend, or maybe she was just really, really tired. But it doesn't matter. In each case, her movements and expression while dancing with me evoked images of someone cleaning the bathrooms of Grand Central Station with their tongue, and boy, was that painful (dancing with her, but yeah, undoubtedly the imagery, too).

If these women had simply said, "No," the following would have happened:
- We'd both have been saved several minutes of unpleasantness.
- We'd have had the opportunity to likely ENJOY several minutes of blissful dancing with a different partner (or a bit of blissful rest). [...]

[ This is the second part of my Napster review. You may read the first part here. ]

This part of my Napster review will cover the following topics:
- The Now Playing functionality
- Library and playlist functionality
- Community features

You can try out Napster for yourself and follow along here if you like