Napster officials visit Penn State to demonstrate system

University Park, Pa. -- Thousands of Penn State students have signed up for the Napster online music service since it was introduced to residence hall students on Jan. 12, and students are averaging more than 100,000 streams a day, according to Larry Linietsky, senior vice president for business development and analysis for Napster. Linietsky and Chris Siess, senior producer for Napster, were on Penn State's University Park campus today (Jan. 21) to demonstrate the service and answer questions about it.

The pair highlighted features of the service that are not available at sites that feature illegal downloading, such as the ability to download songs directly from any of Napster's radio stations; create a personalized radio station based on a playlist built from three songs of the user's choosing; and build playlists from Billboard charts going back to the 1950s.

The service also offers users some of the more popular legal features found on some illegal download sites. For example, users can see what other users are playing, and add other users --  libraries to their libraries.

"You can see what others are playing, and have all of the community features of peer-to-peer, without the down sides," said Linietsky. "When you like something somebody else has in his or her playlist, you don't download it from them -- you download it from Napster, so the sound is clear and you get it right away. And, it's legal."

Siess said that it's obvious that Penn State students are embracing the Napster system.

"Streaming is prominent from 3 p.m. to midnight, with more than 100,000 streams a day," he said.

One issue of concern to some students is the fact that some of the newest releases play a 30-second clip only, with an option to buy the song to hear it in its entirety.

"That's the record companies, not us," said Linietsky. "It's mostly the new stuff, and only about 10 percent of our entire collection. We're working with them, though, and the length of time that these songe are available this way is going down."

Siess said that because Napster has a server on the Penn State University Park campus, they are able to track what students are listening to, as compared to what the general Napster subscribers are choosing.

"The demographic here is a little younger than what we're seeing overall," he said. "Streaming listening habits also have been different from what people are downloading."

The differences lead him to believe that most streaming is being done from the radio stations, and not randomly.

Here are the Top 10 streams by Penn State students for the week ending Jan. 17:
1: With You, Jessica Simpson;
2: Toxic, Britney Spears;
3: Hey Ya!, Outkast;
4: I Believe in a Thing Called Love, The Darkness;
5: So Far Away, Staind;
6: Someday, Nickelback;
7: White Flag, Dido;
8: Headstrong, Trapt;
9: Slow Jamz (Edited) Featuring Kayne West, Twista; and
10: Invisible, Clay Aiken

Here are the Top 10 downloads by Penn State students for the same week:
1: Hey Ya!, Outkast;
2: The Way You Move, Outkast;
3: Someday, Nickelback;
4: With You, Jessica Simpson;
5: Here Without You, 3 Doors Down;
6: Toxic, Britney Spears;
7: The Scientist, Coldplay;
8: White Flag, Dido;
9: Invisible, Clay Aiken; and
10: Milk Shake, Kelis

For pictures, check http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2004_01_21_napster/index.html