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Napster is gone, but there are alternatives. I know several Mac people who have switched to the Gnutella client, LimeWire, and some PC folks who find that Morpheus fills the bill for them. I had been wondering how the demise of Napster as we knew it would set with the college student crowd when they got back to class this fall. However, according to my contacts in academe, everyone has just switched to Gnutella or one of the other peer to peer solutions. I was never a very heavy Napster user, so I haven't missed it a whole lot. I haven't yet got around to experimenting with Gnutella, but over the weekend I decided to check out another of the Napster alternatives, AudioGalaxy, for which Mac client software called Mac Satellite has just been released. Actually, the Mac Satellite application serves as an intermediary that supports browser access to the services at the Audio Galaxy web site, where you can search for songs by typing the name of a song or artist into a field. Files that you select for downloading appear in the Mac Satellite application and then start to download to your computer. The first step was to download the Mac Satellite software from the Mac OS Planet Web site, which was pretty painless, since it's only 604 K. The Read Me instructed me that I would have to register an AudioGalaxy account, and a dialog box with a form for doing so is provided. I filled in the requisite information and checked the Register button and waited, and waited,...... and waited some more. No joy. The client couldn't seem to connect with the server. 
After repeated attempts (it was Friday evening), I decided to use the alternate method of going directly to the AudioGalaxy Web site with a browser, and signing up there. In. That went smoothly enough, and after trying about half a dozen user names that were already taken, I finally came up with acceptable one, and I received a welcome message. I was also informed that I would need the Satellite software running in order to use the services. 
I started up the Mac Satellite, connected, and clicked on the icon in the lower right corner of the window that would take me to the AudioGalaxy members page., which is done in conjunction with a browser. The preview version of Opera I had on my hard drive started up, and informed me that it was expired. I don't have Internet Explorer installed on my computer, which is what I presume was being looked for, so I guess the Mac Satellite program considered Opera to be the best substitute. Or more accurately, the only substitute. I tried trashing all the Opera stuff, at which point the Satellite software wouldn't go anywhere. Apparently iCab, Mozilla, and Netscape Communicator are not supported. Off to the Opera Web site to download the current preview version. Once I had Opera up and running, everything worked smoothly. Music searches and selections are done with the browser, while the download progress is monitored in the Mac Satellite window. 
I tried searching for a modestly successful but not blockbuster hit from the 60's by a not household name band, and Audio galaxy very quickly came up with the song by several cover artists, plus the original. The download (for research purposes) went fine, and seemed as fast or faster than Napster used to run on my slow dial up connection You can configure the Mac Satellite software to deposit the downloaded MP3s wherever you choose on your hard drive, and with the creator code of your favorite of several popular player applications. AudioGalaxy is a bit more hassle to configure than Napster was, and it requires you to have two applications running rather than one in order to use it, but it worked well in my test once I got it set up, and it seems faster coming up with search data than Napster was. the Audio Galaxy service limits you to just one file download at a time unless you are sharing a 20 or more MP3 files yourself. Currently, the Mac Satellite program is only available for the classic Mac OS. You can download it here:
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