Napster is alive—if not so well—and it's no longer free. The streaming service they introduced in May of last year, which garnered revenue based on advertisements pasted to the site, has subtly been pushed to the side over the past several months while the file-sharing company has almost solely emphasized its subscriber-based system. Although news about the site has been quiet as of late, it appears as though the link at Napster.com that previously allowed users to access free streams has disappeared. While a free site does exist at Free.napster.com, a link on Napster's official site to the free version has yet to be established. Napster's tumultuous history could be the reason the company is keeping its changes quiet these days. The once P2P service saw a great deal of controversy during a lawsuit filed by the RIAA in 1999, forcing the site into a subscription based service. Since then, Private Media Group took over the site for a $2.43 million deal—with creator Shawn Fanning moving on to create SNOCAP—leaving Roxio, Inc. to rebrand the service as Napster 2.0. Even on the free site, though, the songs aren't exactly gratis. One can listen to a song a max of three times, after which it can either be bought or the user can become a Napster subscriber, which currently runs $9.95 a month. www.free.napster.com
