Napster/Winamp Hacks

elistoughton · 02-21-2005, 10:22 PM

This is a new way to strip the DRM off files downloaded from Napster (they offer a 14 day trail, and after that its $10 for napster and $15 for napster to go) Two stream rippers (output stacker which encodes to wav files and out-lame which encodes to mp3 files) can encode the files on your computer without the DRM. The biggest catch of Napster, and now Napster To Go is that you no longer have the rights to the files if you no longer are a Napster subscriber. Well, with this method you can cancel your Napster subscription whenever you feel satisfied, and as far as I know it's legal to encode the music that your paying to have a subscription for. As far as the two differect stream rippers go, I'm using out-lame. I'm an ipod/itunes guy and I strongly preffer AAC (MPEG-4) to MP3 (MPEG-1 Layer 3), and wav keeps the files in better quality, but keep in mind that these files started out at 128kbps WMA, so encoding them to WAV doesn't "uncompress" them or make them better sounding. And Out-Lame also keeps the ID3-tagging of the songs intact and gives you the oppurtunity to bypass a final converting. Here's the instructions:

1. Download and install Napster
2. You will need to upgrade from napster light and register for the free trial which includes inputting your credit card information.
3. Use napster to download files
4. Download and install winamp and Output Stacker (which was taken off by AOL soon after this became known OR DOWNLOAD out-lame which encodes straight to MP3, and at this moment is still on Winamp's website
5a (for Output Stacker). in winamp click options menu
* click preferences (CTRL+P)
* click plug-ins
* click output
* click Dietmar's Output Stacker
* click the configure button
* add out_ds.dll from winamp's plug-ins folder
* add out_disk.dll from winamp's plug-ins folder
* FOR OUTPUT STACKER select out_disk.dll in the output stacker plug-in and select Configure
* set the output directory
* set the output file mode to Force WAV file
5b (for Out-Lame)
* click preferences (CTRL+P)
* click plug-ins
* click output
* click Lame MP3 Writer
* click the configure button
* set the output directory
* set the output MP3 bitrate (probably 128kbps, as the files already are 128kbps WMA)
* click OK
6. Play the protected WMA files in winamp as a playlist, do file-> add files, and add the files you want to encode. Double-Click the first one and it will start plaing the playlist, which will be encoding them.
7. As each file is played, an unprotected WAV or MP3 file will be created in the output directory
8. These WAV or MP3 files can be burned straight to a music CD, converted to different formats, and most of all added to itunes. (In itunes, File -> add folder to library, and add the folder where you have encoded these songs. It will automatically add these songs to the itunes music library and itunes music folder. And if your using Out-Lame, the ID3-tags appear exactly as they did in Napster.)
9. Remember to turn off this plug in after you are done as EVERYTHING played through winamp will generate WAV or MP3 file (this is if your going to want to actually listen to music through winamp as well.
10. Before 2 weeks are over, cancel napster or if you wish, keep going and cancel whenever you get enough music that you are satisfied)
* - In Napster click the My Account menu
* Click Account Status
* Click Cancel Free Trial
* Confirm

Napster claims that this is nothing new, and that there have always been work-arounds (burning purchased protected music to cd so that you can re-rip them as unprotected), but nothing has been this easy, and requiring no purchase at all except for a subscription if you want to do it longer than 2 weeks. Napster To Go is the first service using Microsoft's Janus DRM to let users bring music with them on Napster To Go compatible players (you only get to keep the music if you have an active subscription). This new service has sparked Napster's CEO, Chris Gorog in a campaign trying to wipe out itunes/ipod by trying to convince people "it's stupid to buy an ipod." Not only is that ridiculous to begin with, but now there's a work-around that enables these songs to be played on any player. Steve Jobs sent out an e-mail to record execs about the napster hacking, and Gorog fired back saying that the same can be done with itunes (but you actually have to pay for each song.) Napster even put a memo on their website about the hacking, saying that it will "take 10 hours to convert 10 hours of music in this manner." But its been made known that you can run multiple instances of winamp, and they won't screw each other up. And if you select a lot of music start the encoding and leave it overnight, then its not that big of a deal.

Anyway, just thought I'd put this out there for people to know and/or comment on.

merovingian · 02-22-2005, 05:30 AM

Wow! Looks like someone did their homework!!

de · 02-22-2005, 02:10 PM

Something to watch...when you're browsing an album...make sure to hit the "Download Album" text link, not the "Buy Album" button, or you'll be charged.

Also, you can use a program called Virtuosa to convert the downloaded files. It takes about 30 seconds a song, and can convert them to wav or straight to MP3.

M82A1A · 02-22-2005, 03:55 PM

Does this process keep the Id3 tag info, or do you have to manually name the files?

de · 02-22-2005, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by M82A1A

Does this process keep the Id3 tag info, or do you have to manually name the files?

It keeps the tag info, but napster adds crap to the title field (like "/album version") which is pretty annoying.

elistoughton · 03-01-2005, 11:36 AM

Virtuosa is an easier way to encode the music, but only one version of Virtuosa doesn't make the distinction between protected files and unprotected files. It is Virtuosa Phoenix Edition 5.0. You can get a 30-day free trial of Virtuosa. To speed up the encoding process, you can use the LAME 3.97a7 encoder. All you need to do is load the napster downloads into Virtuosa and convert them to MP3.

ghostyroastytoasty · 03-01-2005, 08:09 PM

Does this still work? I know that they changed the DRM in Winamp and made the stacker useless. Does the other program work?

elistoughton · 03-01-2005, 08:21 PM

Yep, still working for me. I know i recently tried out-lame and output stacker in winamp and they didn't work for me. When I went to play the songs it just went down the list as if they were unplayable. Virtuosa works fine, and it works differently because its not recording as it plays. It's actually converting the format as you would with anything else. The only difference was that there was a problem with this particular version of Virtuosa that allows you to convert protected files. They fixed it on the new version, which is why you can't download the version on their website. You have to download the version in the link I put a few posts up.

ghostyroastytoasty · 03-01-2005, 08:26 PM

I might have to try that. I got my ipod photo in today, and I need some good music! This makes a great work around to using Itunes... Why use it when Napstertogo allows you to legally download unlimited for $15 a month. If I like what I hear, I buy... And the latest.. (I heard on Sirius) Flogging Molly. My new favorite! I downloaded their albums and then bought the Cds. Great stuff!

ghostyroastytoasty · 03-01-2005, 08:30 PM

by the way, what version of winamp are you using?

elistoughton · 03-01-2005, 08:32 PM

Yea, I got my 30gb ipod photo last week, and a 1gb shuffle the week before. I've had an ipod mini since last april, but now that i can hack all this music, I'm glad I have the photo for the extra storage. The only problem is that Virtuosa only allows you to encode for 30 days with the free trial. But you can purchase an upgrade. Might be worth it if there is a lot of music that you really want.

elistoughton · 03-01-2005, 08:35 PM

I'm not using winamp anymore. I took it off my computer completely. I was too fed up with out-lame and output stacker not working. Virtuosa Phoenix Edition works fine, and better than winamp.

ghostyroastytoasty · 03-01-2005, 08:40 PM

Oh I thought it was a plugin... Well I'm gonna try it later.. My new photo is the 60 gig.. I found it on buy.com for $429.99 the "old" version with all the accessories.

ghostyroastytoasty · 03-01-2005, 09:02 PM

So looking at Napstertogo.. I just download the track to my hard drive (free trial) and then use the program to convert? It'll aonly charge me if I want to burn it right?

ghostyroastytoasty · 03-01-2005, 09:33 PM

Doesn't work for me