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Probably the most exciting piece of digital music news to come out of CES 2008 was that Napster was planning on offering its complete catalog of more than 6 million tracks in the unprotected MP3 format. Today, with the launch of version 4.5 of the software and store, that announcement becomes a reality. Although digital music stores such as eMusic, Amazon MP3, and even Napster itself already had MP3s on offer before this point, the collective catalogs of all three didn't even come near the volume of tracks you can find in the entire Napster library. This is a huge day for digital music, as all four major labels and thousands upon thousands of indies are represented in the store, and every track will be available at the standard 99-cent price point. Napster's Web-based store with the online media player window open. (Credit: Napster) More good news is that Napster's Web-based store, which is all that is required for MP3 purchases and downloads, is compatible with every operating system. And--of course--the MP3s can be played on any MP3 player, portable video player, or music cell phone. Currently, 95 percent of the catalog is encoded at 256kbps, which is reasonably high-quality for an MP3, and each track comes with hi-res album art (at least 1,000x1,000-pixels). Although Napster has quite an international presence, the MP3 store will only be available to U.S. residents for the time being. Napster will continue to offer its online and To Go subscription services for $12.95 or $14.95 per month, respectively. The music associated with a subscription will remain in the protected WMA format with the time-out capability. The company did make some improvements to its online interface. It now features a "liquid layout," which resizes everything within both the store and media player windows when you adjust the size of either window. Napster has also improved its download management system so that users can better view what has been purchased already and whether it was eve

Muzicons has to be one of the simplest music-sharing tools I've ever seen, and also the one with the most personality. Unlike current Web 2.0 darling Muxtape, which lets you create a nice mix of music uploaded from your hard drive, Muzicons is a single-song affair. You still upload the music from your machine for it to host; the only difference is that there's no track list, no song title, and just a single button to play and pause the music. In fact, whoever creates the mix can tweak the buttons the listener will have access to, determining whether they can skip around the track and what song information is listed. What makes Muzicons an especially memorable Web app is the care and attention that's been built in to the simple ways you can customize its look and feel. There are just two tweaks: one for color and another for the icon. If you've ever played the popular puzzle game Lumines, the icons feel very similar, and you've got a pick of more than 50 to choose from that will sit on the left side of the player. When it comes time to share your creation you've only got two options: one set of code for blogs and Web sites, and another for BB code enabled forums or blog comments. If you're looking for some of the simple sharing options seen on other mixtape sites you're out of luck--for now at least. I've embedded a Muzicon above with the song "She Sells Sanctuary" by The Cult. To make your