So Napster To Go has me thinking. You get to download as much as you want, but it's coded, so if you stop paying them monthly, it's all for nothing and the files don't play anymore. This makes me wonder something:

What if one were to come up with a very, very high quality D/A converter and send analog signal (rca cables, etc) into it with the songs playing, and convert it back to some sort of high-grade digital? The only drawback I can see is that it would be slower than downloading, since I suppose it would have to be real-time.

Just in case I didn't word that well, what I imagine is this - one downloads whatever one wants for $15 a month or whatever. And then one plays those files either from the computer or pod, and has the audio out line run into something like a nice sound card (already exists, doesn't it?), which takes that analog, squiggly line data and makes it into clean, unlocked 1's and 0's again, in the format of your choice, and possibly at the bitrate of your choice?. It's like taking the headphone jack from your pc's sound card, plugging it into a 1/8-to-rca converter cable (radio shack, coupla $), then running the other end to a tape deck, but fancier.

Apologies if that's either already been done or is dumb for some easy reason that escaped me, like the time-to-conversion factor.

it's been brought up some other places before, but it's totally valid.

Their are audio converting programs out there that convert any digital output, to another file type, IE mp3's without even using cables. It just uses the soundcard to do the conversion.

IE, you can make mp3's of streaming media without cables.

I believe one such program is http://www.download.com/Audio-Record-Wi ... 49674.html

It's also worth noting that you can just get the files illegally, since what you'd be doing is illegal anyway, and save yourself the hassle.

Please understand I have 0 intention of ever pursuing any of this. But give a man a High Life with lunch, and show him 3,000 Napster To Go ads, and the wheels begin to turn.

damn it, what was your old screen name?

Bill The Cat.

It got me to thinking, too: why would anyone actually use this service? Really. What does the end user get out of it in the end? Nothing. You "rent" music and as soon as you stop paying, it's gone. What the hell kind of deal is that? It sure does make sense for Napster - people are permanently hooked to this service and can never do what they want with their music. Realistically, at some point, users will not be buying so much, but they'll continue to pay - these people would have paid off the purchase cost of every CD many times over were they to keep up with it.

I'm astounded this business model even made it past the first suggestion in whatever business meeting it came up in. Did anyone do any kind of marketability testing of this idea? I think if you ask most people if they would mind renting music that would stop working as soon as they stopped paying, they'd tell you you're crazy.

Does anyone know how this service is doing financially? I've never heard of anyone actually using it.

They only mention the "pssst, it stops woring when you stop paying" part in tiny print, just large enough to be legal, in the ads. The part that's HUGE is the price per month and the word "unlimited." Which tells me they count on people not noticing or being too dumb to care.