Life After Napster ?

Looks like good old Napster's in the thick of it again. But while the lawyers battle it out in court the file-sharing world is growing stronger and stronger, ensuring that when the Napster dream is finally over there will always be something to take its place. Here for your perusal we present your best options when it comes to getting your fix of free music.

Over the last year especially, Napster clones and 'peer-to-peer' file transfer programs have sprung up everywhere, and while they all do a similar job their worth can best be judged by the number of users sharing files. WinMX has already become a large player, with a huge number of followers, others such as FileTopia, FileRogue, Rapigator, File Navigator and AudioGalaxy also come highly recommended.

The greatest alternative, and most likely successor is Gnutella, and although its original creators have abandoned the program there are a large number of independent developers who are keeping the ball rolling. The basic difference between the Gnutella programs and Napster is that they are decentralized, which means no central server and no way to stop them should John Q. Law choose to spoil the party once more. Unfortunately this also means a slightly less reliable service than Napster, but a much more powerful one. When it comes to choosing the best Gnutella client you are spoilt for choice. BearShare is a lovely, fast and simple program that is already proving incredibly popular. Others to look out for are Gnotella and LimeWire.

Scouring the Internet in both FTP and HTTP domains to find MP3 (and other) files is another option when it comes to finding music on-line. It has advantages over file-sharing programs in that you are downloading from a site, not someone's PC, so the chances of being cutoff mid-download are reduced. On the downside you are not going to find anywhere near amount of stuff that Napster can provide. However there's still more than enough to satisfy most users. One of the best of these type of MP3 searches has to be MediaGrab; it has an extensive range of MP3 sites it searches, and also verifies the links before you begin downloading. But in our view, the best thing you could do is get your hands on a couple of these programs to really cover your bases. Others to take a look at are the excellent Spotlight, WinMP3Locator and ComTry MP3 Downloader. Finally have a look at FileFunnel, from the makers of GetRightŪ, which lets you search the Napster network with your web browser, and then download files you want with GetRight, or any other Internet program. You can even stream Napster downloads right into WinAmp or other MP3 players.

With 2 or 3 of the best MP3 searchers or file sharing programs, you are able to find virtually any epic of music you desire (as well as a lot of rare and unusually unheard of tracks by your favourite artists). So check out the reviews, try out the programs, and find the program(s) that best suite your needs and ability. And if that fails then you can always think of going to a music store, listen to some CD's, you never know, you might even want to buy something!