Napster, the online music service which returned
yesterday, will launch officially on 29 October.
Now in beta testing, Napster 2.0 will offer US music fans a
digital music library with more than 500,000 songs available for
downloading individually for 99 cents. Albums will also be
available for $9.95.
Napster is also selling subscriptions for $9.95 per month, which
give users unlimited listening and downloading to their hard
drives, 40 commercial-free radio stations and community features,
such as the ability to share playlists and e-mail tracks with other
Napster users.
While the monthly subscription allows unlimited downloading of
songs to the users' hard drives, users would have to pay 99 cents
for each song they want to burn to a CD or transfer to a portable
device.
Napster 2.0 is available only to Windows users and there are no
plans to support the Macintosh platform.
For no charge, anyone can download the Napster 2.0 service to
watch music videos on demand, listen to 30-second music clips,
access Billboard charts, read Napster's online magazine, Fuzz, and
use a music recommendation engine.
Users can also upload music files from their hard drives to
Napster 2.0, ito have all their music files in one place. Fans can
pre-register for the service now at
www.napster.com.
Napster also announced a partnership with Samsung Electronics to
develop portable audio devices. The first Samsung-Napster player
will be available starting on 19 October in Best Buy stores in the
US.
A partnership with Microsoft will make Napster the featured
music service on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004. Microsoft
will also be included in Windows Media Player 9.
Finally, buyers of Gateway Media Center PCs will receive one
month's access to Napster 2.0 free of charge if they purchase the
machine during the fourth quarter. Later this year, Gateway will be
the only PC company to ship Napster on all of its consumer desktop
PCs, along with 150 preloaded songs.
Juan Carlos Perez writes for IDG News Service
Napster makes legitimate return to online music >>