Napster relaunches with Web-enabled platform
(* Source : Reuters *)
Yinka Agedoke says :
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Napster Inc, the digital music service, said on Tuesday it plans to attract more customers by moving to a Web-based platform allowing users to play their music from any computer without having to download any additional software.
The move is intended to open up the service and attract more paying subscribers by making the Napster platform more flexible and compatible with any Internet-enabled device.
Before now most Napster subscribers could only listen to their music after downloading the Napster software application on to their personal computers. This is similar to a model currently used by Apple Inc's iTunes Music Store, which is the market leader with more than 70 percent of all digital music sales.
"With this new platform Napster can easily be integrated into consumer electronics devices or integrated into other Web sites such as social networking sites," said Christopher Allen, chief operating officer at Napster.
Napster sells a subscription service for $10 to $15 a month where users can stream or download an unlimited number of songs from its 5 million-strong library. But Napster's and other music subscription services have so far lagged behind larger rival iTunes, which uses a more traditional buy-to-own model. Itunes sells songs as permanent downloads at 99 cents each.