Tag: napster

Rob Pegoraro, tech columnist for the Washington Post, says the new Napster To Go service isn’t exactly the best way to consume digital music. “Whether you like Napster To Go, the online store’s new music subscription service, depends on whether you think of it as all-you-can-eat or all-you-can-pay,” writes Pegoraro. “At its best, music has the same lasting value as books or paintings or any other sort of meaningful art: It isn’t a disposable good that you use and then forget about.

Apple rival Napster began trading as its own company today on Nasdaq under its new ticker “NAPS.” Based on “subscriber acquisition initiatives and strong holiday sales,” the company expects to achieve revenue growth in the third quarter of fiscal 2005 and reiterated its guidance for revenues of approximately US$11 million. Napster closed the calendar year with a net balance of cash and investments of more than $130 million. Read More

Roxio’s Napster said on Wednesday that it is now offering a free digital music player with a one-year subscription. In its latest attempt to gain new customers, Napster said it would give consumers a Rio Chiba Sport (128MB of storage, US$130 value) if they sign up for the subscription priced at $119.40.

Roxio has launched a version of the Napster online music store in Canada. The new store features more than 300,000 tracks priced at CDN$1.19 each and $9.95 for albums. The launch of Napster Canada follows just one week after the debut of Napster’s UK service. There has been no word on when Apple plans to offer Canadian consumers a version of the iTunes Music Store. Read More

Napster sent out a press release on Monday touting the fact that it had recently sold over five million songs. However, it still remains far behind Apple’s iTunes Music Store (iTMS). At last month’s Macworld Expo, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said more than 30 million songs had been purchased and downloaded from the iTMS since it launched in April. He also noted that Apple sold close to 1.9 million songs per week in December. Read More

The San Jose Mercury News reports that Napster is losing both money and top management, including its president, chief financial officer, vice president of programming and head of corporate communications as well a key board member. Roxio also began laying off workers this week at the Napster division, which lost US$15 million in its first two months of operation.

Roxio CEO Chris Gorog has responded to Apple’s statement regarding the market share numbers of iTunes and the Roxio-owned Napster music service. “We expect as soon as we get the word out to consumers that Napster is back, it will significantly impact our growth,” Gorog told TechNewsWorld.

Napster is planning to offer prepaid cards at retail stores after it launches its online music service on Wednesday, reports Reuters. The Napster Card will be priced at US$14.85, providing the user with 15 song downloads. The company says that the new card is geared towards teenagers without credit cards and as gifts.

Gene Munster, a senior research analyst with investment bank US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, told the Boston Globe this week that he expects Napster to lead the online music market with a 30 percent share and iTunes, with a combination of Mac and Windows users, to be in second, with 20 percent. Apple said it held 70 percent of the market before launching iTunes for Windows last week.

Roxio, which bought Napster for US$5 million last year, is planning an October 9 test launch for the new, legal version of the service called Napster 2.0, according to Napster spokesman Seth Oster.

Reuters reports that the Napster song swapping service will be relaunched by the end of the year as a legal, subscription-based music business, according to its new owners.