Free Music on Napster (Again)

Shades of the dot-bomb era. Napster is once again offering free songs like it once did in the rogue days of the Web but it's legal this time.

The music site has been selling monthly subscriptions for the past few years and now will turn to an advertisement-based revenue model. Here's the dealio...

Listeners can have up to five plays of more than 2 million songs. After that, they can either buy the songs for 99 cents or subscribe to Napster's downloading service. Napster plans to use the free service to promote its subscription offerings which cost between $9.95 and $14.95.

One other catch - a 15-second video ads will be shown before listeners hear their selected tune.

Need your comments. Is this a service you will use instead of iTunes or your other fave music service?