Remember in the good old day’s of dial-up Internet connections? When the Internet was booming and music piracy went by the name of Napster? Sadly those day’s are behind us and Napster is no longer with us, but a new music streaming site has turned up which offers us similar features.

While Napster would allow us to search for a song then download the MP3 file to listen to it, Napster.fm allows you to directly stream the music through your browser. The interface is rather basic and resource friendly, but it does allow you to share play-lists with friends.

Napster.fm has been made possibly due to a hole in YouTube piracy detection system, which possibly means that the service will be short lived once YouTube patches it up, but in the meantime we can sit back and enjoy some free music like the good old days.

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Deezer, the music streaming service, is launching a free ad supported streaming service to its available options. This will be a one year trial allowing for unlimited music streaming. After the year is up, listeners will only be able to get 2 hours a month of music without a paid subscription.  Also being offered is a 30 day trial of its Premium + Service, which is ad-free mobile streaming.

Deezer has had a free option for some time, Discovery mode, which allows style based streaming similar to that of Pandora and Last.fm.  The company is hoping this will, over time, add better monetization: “Our aim here is to encourage music fans to try us, driving ad-supported service listeners to switch to paid subscription over time.”

The service is available today in over 150 countries, the United States excluded.  There has been no release date from Deezer for the service to drop in the United States.

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Redbox, the movie rental kiosk company has been planning a partnership with Verizon to attempt to break into the video streaming market for some time, but it looks like it is all coming together now.  Associated Press reported Redbox Instant by Verizon is set to be launched late December as invite-only for the time being.

I’m sure what you are all asking is what is going to set this apart from what Netflix is already doing?  That is not for sure at this point. To start with, let me tell you the meat and potatoes of what we do know.  For $8/month you will get unlimited streaming and 4 nights of DVD rentals.  For $9 you get 4 nights of Blu-Ray rentals.  Webpage AllthingsD stated that Redbox would also have an unlimited, no disk, streaming for $6/month, 2 bucks cheaper than Netflix and Hulu Plus.

All this sounds good, however the downside to the Redbox streaming is that at time of launch they won’t offer any TV shows, which is a big piece of Netflix business and the majority of Hulu’s.  The Chief Executive of the project, Shawn Strickland told the AP the service is “targeted squarely at movie lovers.”  While they will have a more mainstream catalog than their competitors, is this going to be enough to take their slice of the pie?

Redbox’s official press release shows plans starting at $8 level with 4 night DVD rental, so it is unsure if the streaming only option will even be available.  This release also advises some streaming options of apps for iOS and Androids, LG and Samsung’s smart TVs and Blu-Ray players, as well as Google TVs, with more stream options available as things develop.

At this time there is no set date for the service to be switched from invite to main stream release.

Do you think their blockbuster movies and possible lower price will be enough to make customers defect from their current subscription service?  What streaming service do you currently use and would you make the switch?

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Sure, streaming media is nothing new. You can do that with no problem at all on Hulu or Netflix. However, there’s just something to be said about free, and that’s exactly the appeal of the Sony Crackle app for iPhone and iPad.

We’re not talking about random unauthorized clips from YouTube. The crazy thing about Crackle is that you can watch full feature length movies and television shows from major studios. Go ahead and watch everything from The Da Vinci Code to classic episodes of Married with Childen. Before Modern Family, Ed O’Neill was Al “Four Touchdowns in a Single Game” Bundy.

The app, which probably looks better on the iPad than the iPhone, comes with content from Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics, and other sources. Because it is free, Crackle is supported by ads. That’s a small price to pay to get that much free TV and movie watching, right?

Now, we just have to see if Sony will extend the Crackle love to the Android (and other) owners in the audience.

[iTunes]

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