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Remember the original Napster? The one where millions of music fans shared free music files amongst each other? Well, that Napster is long gone shut down by numerous lawsuits and a high court decision that finally put the last nail in the coffin of unregulated online digital music file swapping. But the old Napster eventually rose from the ashes to become Napster, Inc., an online music subscription service that offers a variety of features and subscription models.

When the original Napster was shut down, Roxio came along and purchased the company, although it retained its famous name and company logo. Roxio purchased the Napster Company at the bankruptcy auction held in 2002 after the company filed from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The original beta version of the Napster pay version was launched on October 9, 2003. The Napster pay service operates on many subscription levels. Napster users may choose to become a full membership subscriber for a monthly fee.

Access to a full membership subscription allows Napster member’s unlimited access to music and music downloads for a monthly fee. Or Napster users can subscribe to Napster Light, which is a kind of a la carte pay per track service, similar to the Apple iTunes music store. The relatively new Napster pay service has been successful, even though its greatest competitor—Apple’s famous iTunes digital music store—still outsells Napster music service.

Here is a brief overview of all the Napster services that are currently offered by Napster since it converted into a pay service.

Napster Light: This is your basic a la carte music service. It allows Napster users to purchase individual songs, full-length albums or music videos that they can download onto their computer or load onto their MP3 music players. Once they have selected, purchased and downloaded their music, the user can keep it forever. Napster Light is similar to the way that the Apple iTunes music store is operated.

Beyond Napster Light, the Napster pay service website offers users two other basic levels of subscription. The two basic levels include Napster to Go or Napster Members. Subscribing to any of these two levels of Napster membership does not necessarily give the user the ability to burn songs onto a CD.

The Napster Members membership level allows users to stream all the music they want from Napster using their broadband Internet connection. This level of membership is aimed for music lovers who spend a lot of time on their PCs and who have broadband access. Napster Members can stream an unlimited number of songs from the Napster music library, but they cannot download them.

The Napster to Go membership level allows user to stream music and transfer an unlimited number of files to a Napster-compatible MP3 players. Napster to Go was first launched in late 2004. The service is aimed at music listeners who rely primarily on their MP3 players to listen to music. The service allows users to transfer as many files as they want to their MP3 device, but the device must be compatible with Microsoft Janus. Popular digital music players such as the Apple iPod or Sony Walkman are not compatible with this service.

However, Napster to Go users can only listen to the songs on their MP3 players while their subscription is active. They do not get to “keep” the songs if they decide to terminate their subscription. This service is aimed at listeners who enjoy constantly updating their music files and getting easy access to the latest music releases. However, it is not a good choice for those who enjoy downloading music files and burning them onto their own CDs.