Can I Really Listen to Napster Music for Free?
Is Napster's Free Service Available Outside of the United States?
Free Music! How do I sign up?
Do I Have To Register With Napster To Listen To Free Music?
How Do I Sign-In to use the Napster Free Player?
I Can't Remember My Username and/or Password, What Do I Do?
If this is Free, Why Would I Subscribe to Napster?
I'm already a Napster Subscriber. Can I Listen to Music through the Free Player?

Find, Play and Buy Music

How Do I Find Music in Napster?
How are Search Results Displayed?
What are Artist and Album Pages?
What is NapsterLive?
How Do I Play a Song Using the Napster Free Player?
Can I Load More Than One Song Into the Player at a Time?
I am having trouble playing tracks on Napster's free service. What could be causing this?
I have already installed the Napster client, so why am I being told that I must install the client again to purchase tracks?
How Do I Use the Player Controls?
I Try to Play a Song but I Only Hear a 30-Second Clip, Why?
Can I Download Songs to My Computer Using the Napster Free Service?
How Do I Buy a Song or Album from Napster?
What Can I Do with Music I Buy From Napster?
How Can I Restore Napster Tracks That I've Purchased, or Copy These Tracks To Another PC?
Is My Credit Card Information Safe When I Buy Music From Napster?
Does Napster Work with iPod?
I am in the United States and I Have a Napster Card. How Long Do I Have to Redeem It?
Why can't I find the music I am looking for on Napster?
Why do some tracks have a 30 second icon play button?

My Account

How Do I View My Free Napster Account Details?

Napster System Requirements and Configuration

What are Napster's Minimum System Requirements?
Is it Possible To Get Viruses from Napster?
Does Napster Use Cookies?
Is Napster Scanning My Ports?
Can I Listen to Free Music Using any Internet Browser?



Yes. Here's how it works. You can search our catalog of 3 million songs and stream songs up to 3 times each for FREE. After the 3rd free play of any single track, you can either purchase the track or become a Napster subscriber. As a subscriber, you can download an unlimited number of full-length songs to your PC. As a Napster To Go subscriber you can transfer those tracks to your compatible portable player without paying per track.

The Napster free service is currently only available in the United States. We are working hard at expanding the free service to all Napster service territories. Until then, all users outside of the U.S. can preview 30-second clips of any song in our extensive music catalog.

If you are in the United Kingdom, Canada or Germany, the Napster subscription service is available in your country.

Napster & free music . . . they just go together. To sign up and start listening, select the Register link at the top of the page. Enter your unique username, a password (minimum of six alpha-numeric characters) and your email address (if you forget your username or password we will send it to the email address you provide in this form.). Read and agree to the Napster Terms and Conditions and choose if you would like to receive periodic emails from us containing artist updates, exclusive content and special offers. Then select the submit button and we'll send you a welcome email letting you know your registration is complete.

Napster allows you to listen to your first song without registering. After you play one song, Napster requires all users to register to listen to free music. Registering with Napster is quick, easy and best of all, it's FREE. The only information we require is a unique username, a password and your email address. That's it!

Registering has other benefits as well. You can purchase and burn any song in the Napster catalog of music, (over 3 million songs) and share songs with friends using NapsterLinks. If you choose to subscribe to Napster or Napster To Go, you can keep your username and password when you subscribe.

Click here to register and begin your Napster experience.

To sign-in to Napster:





From the Sign-in screen, select the Forgot Member Name or Password? link. Submit the email address you entered during registration and your username and password will be sent to that address.

As a registered member of the Music Store you can search our catalog of 3 million songs and stream songs up to 3 times each for FREE. After the 3rd free play, you must purchase the track to listen to it again.

As a Napster subscriber, you can listen to the same song an unlimited amount of times without having to worry about any limits. You can also download your favorite music to your PC and listen to it when you are not connected to the internet.

If you subscribe to Napster To Go, you can transfer that music to any compatible portable device and take your music with you.

Either way, there are no limits on how often you can listen to your favorite songs. And of course, all Napster subscription members can still purchase music to burn to CD or just keep permanently in their digital music collection.

Yes you can. If you are a Napster or Napster To Go subscriber you can stream full length songs over the internet using any computer you want. As a subscriber, there is no limit on how many times you can play a track. Use your existing Napster username and password to sign-in and get started.

If you know exactly what you are looking for you can search for it by song title, album title or artist name. If you would rather see what Napster has to offer, you can browse through the Napster catalog by your favorite genre or see what we've Just Added.

To search Napster:






To Browse Napster:







A search results page will display all results returned based upon the type of search you performed:



A search on an artist name returns results under the following columns:






A search on an album name returns results under the following columns:











A search on a track name returns results under the following columns:











Artist Page:

The artist page includes an artist image, discography, biography and recommended artists. Select a tab to view each option.



Album Page:

The album page may include the album artwork, artist name, album information including a tracklist, and recommended artists.






Napster invites some of today's best artists to record an exclusive in-house studio session. Some artists stick with the vibe of their original recordings, others strip down their originals for a distinctly different version just for us. All the music is recorded especially for the Napster audience.

To browse through NapsterLive sessions:





To play a song in the Napster Free Player, select the play button next to the track title or select the track title itself. The song will be loaded in to the Napster Free player and begin playing. The 30-second clip button in place of the play button indicates that song is only available as a 30-second sample.

Yes. Select Play Album or Play Playlist to load the entire album or playlist into the player and begin playback.

It's important to understand that there may be many factors preventing you from playing Napster tracks when using your internet browser to stream music from the internet. The most common causes for playback problems are related to internet security software/hardware, anti-virus programs, browser settings and the quality of your internet connection.

Make sure that all of the security software/hardware and any anti-virus programs you have installed on your PC are correctly configured to allow your internet browser to play music from Napster's free service. You should also make sure that your browser security settings are set appropriately low enough. Please refer to your security software/hardware or anti-virus program manufacturer and the internet options section of your internet browser for more information and to check your settings.

It should also be noted that Napster.com uses a Flash based player that should be kept up to date by running the latest version of Flash .

If you are using a web browser other than Internet Explorer, it is possible that Napster.com may not be able to properly detect whether or not you have already installed the Napster client. We recommended that you log in and purchase tracks from within the Napster client, or use Internet Explorer when you wish to make purchases directly from Napster.com.

The Player Controls are designed to mimic familiar stereo components.











This could be due to a number of reasons.

Users not in the United States:

The Napster free service is currently only available in the United States. We are working hard at expanding the free service to all Napster service territories. Until then, all users outside of the U.S. can preview 30-second clips of any song in our extensive music catalog.

Exceeding the streaming limit:

All free users can stream a full length song 3 times. After that, Napster provides a 30-second sample of the song.

To listen to the full length song after you have streamed it 3 times, you may purchase the track and permanently download it to your PC or become a Napster subscriber and listen to the song as often as you'd like.

Song Rights:

Napster does not have legal rights to offer every track in our catalog as a full-length stream. Some songs are only available for sale, so if you try to stream them, you will only get 30-second previews. To gain access to the complete track, you must buy it. These songs are identified in our search and browse results by a "buy only" button.

You must purchase songs to permanently download them to your computer using the Napster Free service. Once you purchase a track you can burn it to CD, transfer it to a portable device or keep it on your local hard drive.

As a Napster Subscriber you can download an unlimited amount of songs to your PC, without having to pay for each track.

As a Napster To Go subscriber, you can download an unlimited amount of songs to your PC, without having to pay for each track and take your music with your by transferring it to a Napster To Go compatible portable device.

And of course, all Napster subscription members can still purchase music to burn to CD or just keep permanently in their digital music collection.

Buying music from Napster is easy and convenient. You can purchase single songs or complete albums. Here's how:








You will be prompted to download the Napster application if you do not already have it installed on your PC.

Once downloaded Napster will walk you through the billing information and purchase process.

When you purchase songs they immediately begin to download to your computer. You can view the download progress by gong to the Download Status folder in your Library. Once a purchased track is downloaded, it appears in your library's Purchased Tracks folder.

You must use a credit card or Paypal account to purchase music from Napster.

The songs and albums you buy are yours to keep forever. You can burn an individual song as many times as you like and the same songlist up to 7 times. You can copy your music to 3 computers, and transfer it to a compatible MP3 player an unlimited number of times.


Open the Napster application and use Copy Library to re-download your tracks after a hard disk failure or reformatting. You can also use the Copy Library feature to make copies of your downloaded and purchased tracks on up to 3 PCs. Just sign in to your Napster account, select Copy Library from the My Account menu and follow the prompts.

Napster uses industry-standard Internet security procedures for transmitting all credit card information. To meet this standard, all credit card information is encrypted and securely transmitted using SSL technology. This information will not be disclosed under any circumstances.

Napster would like to work with your iPod but Apple has chosen to keep both the iPod and iTunes closed off from Napster and every other digital music service. Napster's philosophy is different. A Napster Membership gives you more ways to discover and enjoy music on more players.

If you reside in CA, CT, HI, LA, MA, ME, MT, ND, NH, NJ, OH, OK, RI, VT, or WA, and bought or hold a Napster Card with 'Card carries its value for 1 year from day of activation' or 'Card carries its value for 1-year from date of purchase' or similar language on the back of the card, Napster wants you to know that your card will not lose its value over time. Your card will continue to carry its value until it is redeemed. The declared limitation does apply for all other U.S. states.

The music you are looking for may be added soon.

In our daily efforts to build the finest and largest music collection ever, we face and overcome many challenges.

The biggest challenge is that different individuals hold different rights to each piece of music. The people who have ownership or rights to a track include the performers, the publishers or songwriters, and the record labels, which promote and distribute the music. Publishing copyrights are held by so many different people, tens of thousands of music publishers in the US alone, that it would be impossible for us to track them all down. To follow copyright law, we must have an agreement from every rights holder on a track before we make it available on Napster, or risk huge fines.

Other issues that complicate the process of bringing music to you include:




As we overcome the obstacles that are built into the future of digital music, you will benefit with more and more music available to you

A small percentage of tracks on Napster are restricted to 30 second clips and not available for full-length listening. These tracks must be purchased to receive the full-length version.

To view your account status, select the My Account link at the top of the page. The Account Status dialog contains the following information related to your account:








To listen to Napster's free service you must have the following system requirements:

To download and use the Napster application to listen to music, you must have the following system requirements:




Napster does not use scripting languages that are capable of any viral activity on our Web pages. The only programs we deliver to your PC are the Napster application itself (when you become a subscriber or purchase a song) and the other components that form the installation. These programs are thoroughly checked for viruses before we generate the installation.

In addition, to make sure that no one hacks our installation and replaces it with one that contains a virus, we have a certificate assigned to us by VeriSign that permits us to sign our installation files. We do this with every installation we generate and you will see evidence of this when you start the install process. All other data and information delivered by Napster is in such a format that it cannot carry viruses.

Yes Napster does use the following types of cookies:





See our privacy policy for a complete explanation of our use of cookies

To ensure optimal performance, our servers routinely ping your computer in order to deliver content more efficiently. This process is completely harmless and does not compromise your system in any way, although some commercial firewalls may report these as port scans.

Yes, you can use any flash supported browser to listen to free music. For the best possible experience, Napster recommends using the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape.