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Roxio set to launch Napster service before Christmas
New York, July 28: Roxio Inc. on Monday said the revamped online music service Napster will debut in time for the Christmas holidays and will let users access music through a subscription or an a la carte option.
New York, July 28: Roxio Inc. on Monday said the revamped online music service Napster will debut in time for the Christmas holidays and will let users access music through a subscription or an a la carte option.
The new service, Napster 2.0, will likely debut with the largest legal music catalog in the world with close to half a million songs, Chris Gorog, chairman and chief executive of the CD-burning software company told Reuters.
He declined to comment on the price of a subscription, as well as what each song would cost on an a la carte basis for the re-launch of Napster, the song-swapping pioneer that was shutdown by copyright infringement lawsuits in 2001.
The details of the launch comes amid plans for online music services from several other players, including AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online later this year and services from retailers such as Buy.com and Amazon.com.
Users of Napster's new service will be able to search for music, listen to pre-programmed radio that is customized to their tastes and be able to burn CDs and download music to other devices, Gorog said.
"It will be very reflective of the key characteristics of the original Napster, which is independence, innovation and freedom of choice and empowering consumers to do exactly what they want to do and navigate and search to their personal tastes," Gorog said in an interview.
Roxio bought the assets of Napster last year for about $5 million at bankruptcy auction and bought the Pressplay music service this year.
Gorog said about 97 per cent of online music users recognize the Napster brand and half of those have indicated they would be interested in paying for a service. Industry players have said music labels have been more receptive to recent digital music plans but some artists have still resisted the online movement.
"We have found the labels have been much more liberal in terms of usage rules. Certainly there are some artist hold outs but we are finding the hold-out artists to be very receptive to the new Napster," Gorog said, adding that it has not yet started testing the new service.
He also declined to comment on when Roxio expected to make back its investment in Napster and Pressplay, adding that the company has not yet revealed its financial business model.
He declined to comment on the price of a subscription, as well as what each song would cost on an a la carte basis for the re-launch of Napster, the song-swapping pioneer that was shutdown by copyright infringement lawsuits in 2001.
The details of the launch comes amid plans for online music services from several other players, including AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online later this year and services from retailers such as Buy.com and Amazon.com.
Users of Napster's new service will be able to search for music, listen to pre-programmed radio that is customized to their tastes and be able to burn CDs and download music to other devices, Gorog said.
"It will be very reflective of the key characteristics of the original Napster, which is independence, innovation and freedom of choice and empowering consumers to do exactly what they want to do and navigate and search to their personal tastes," Gorog said in an interview.
Roxio bought the assets of Napster last year for about $5 million at bankruptcy auction and bought the Pressplay music service this year.
Gorog said about 97 per cent of online music users recognize the Napster brand and half of those have indicated they would be interested in paying for a service. Industry players have said music labels have been more receptive to recent digital music plans but some artists have still resisted the online movement.
"We have found the labels have been much more liberal in terms of usage rules. Certainly there are some artist hold outs but we are finding the hold-out artists to be very receptive to the new Napster," Gorog said, adding that it has not yet started testing the new service.
He also declined to comment on when Roxio expected to make back its investment in Napster and Pressplay, adding that the company has not yet revealed its financial business model.