Alas, it is all a bit of gimmick. Napster is offering free streaming music to its users to rope them into buying tunes.

Under the deal you can listen to streaming music from any of Napster's two million tracks up to five times.

The music is compressed to within nine inches of its life so that if you listen to it, chances are you will not enjoy it.

It is identical to the sort of service offered by its rival Rhapsody about a year ago, although its streaming is slightly less compressed than that of Napster.

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