Napster and Dwango Sign Deal for Mobile Ringtones
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The Napster Mobile service will launch in the US and Canada in 2005 and will utilize a special Napster interface. Users will be able to download ringtones and earn credits redeemable on Napster PC-based service at the same time.
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&quot;Napster Mobile is a natural extension for the biggest brand in digital music and will enhance our development of wireless delivery,&quot; Napster Chairman and CEO Chris Gorog said.
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Napster on Thursday said it&#39;s testing a monthly subscription service that would let customers download an unlimited number of songs and play them on portable music devices
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Currently both Napster and RealNetworks offer music services with a subscription option where users who subscribe get to listen to all the music they want for a flat fee of around US$9.95 a month.
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Napster announced yesterday that it is testing a new subscription service model that would add portable devices to the list of its subscription service&#39;s supported devices.
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Thanks two a partnership with Dwango Wireless; the new Napster is prepared to enter the mobile technology realm. But this time, it&#39;s not for illegal mp3s.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Billboard) - This past year marked the  beginning of a revolutionary experiment to sell and distribute  digital music to and from mobile phones. The stage is only just  being set, with the business models, pricing and marketing  issues still evolving.
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Microsoft earlier this year developed a new copyright protection plan that allows for the transfer of subscription songs to portable players. For &#36;5 more a month, consumers can transfer Napster's entire catalog to their device - and listen as often as they'd like - as long as they subscribe.
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UK-based mobile music company Omnifone has launched MusicStation, a next-generation mobile phone music service that will be deployed in partnership with music labels such as Universal Music and 23 initial global mobile operators.
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(InfoWorld) - Omnifone wants to put a new face on mobile phone music downloads with its MusicStation service. Built around a software client that runs on a wide range of phones, MusicStation links to a subscription-based online music store and allows users to build and share playlists, follow news about their favorite bands, and play and download music on their mobile for a fixed weekly fee, said CEO Rob Lewis. The MusicStation application lets subscribers download music over the air using GPRSÂ or 3G mobile networks. The software runs on phones with Symbian's OS or other phones that can run Java applets. Omnifone, based in London, hopes to challenge Apple's forthcoming iPhone, offering users a similarly easy-to-use music service from around three-quarters of phones currently sold, but giving network operators a slice of the revenue, Lewis said. The MusicStation platform charges music directly to the customer's phone bill and doesn't require customers to use a credit card. The company has reached agreements with 23 mobile network operators to use its music download platform to sell music from major record labels, including Universal Music Group. It has also partnered with Musiwave, a mobile music services provider that's part of Openwave Systems, to distribute the MusicStation system. Scandinavian operator Telenor and South African network VodacomÂ are scheduled to launch MusicStation first, by June. Omnifone will name four more customers in Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region by June, it said at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Omnifone said consumers don't need a computer or broadband Internet connection to use MusicStation, although downloaded music can also be transferred to a user's computer with a premium subscription. MusicStation is priced as a weekly subscription; in the U.K., the price will be Â£1.99 per week ($3.87) or â¬2.99 ($5.82) throughout Europe. The premium service will be Â£2.99 in the U.K. and â¬3.99 throughout Europe. The platform supports DRM (digital rights management) technology, which limits how the music can be used, and tracks will be sold in the eAAC+ (enhanced advanced audio coding), Omnifone said. On 3G networks, they are encoded at 48Kbps, and on GPRS networks at 32Kbps to shorten download times. On phones with limited memory capacity, MusicStation monitors which tracks are played most often and deletes little-used tracks to free up space. They can, however, be downloaded again later as long as the user remains a subscriber, Lewis said. Peter Sayer in Paris, contributed to this report. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Napster, the remade version of the popular Internet music sharing service, is in talks over a sale or possible strategic partnership, the company said Monday. The announcement comes as a steady stream of new competitors enter the market, includingÂ SanDisk with partner RealNetworks, andÂ Microsoft with its Zune MarketplaceÂ strategy. It also comes amid a sharp downturn in user figures for Napster, which has seen its user base erode to 512,000 users at the end of June, from 606,000 at the end of March. Napster said it has hired UBS Investment Bank to assist management in the "evaluation of strategic alternatives," in response to interest from a third party in potentially acquiring or establishing a venture with the company. Napster also said it remains in a strong position to continue building its own business, with or without such a deal, highlighting its cash position of $97 million. The announcement sent Napster's Nasdaq-listed stock up 12.4 percent in after-market trading, to $3.99. The company set no timetable for finalizing the evaluation, and said the talks may not result in any deals. Formed in 1999, Napster popularized peer-to-peer music sharing on the Internet, gaining notoriety when a recording industry lawsuit ultimately shut it down and set the precedent for further legal victories over similar online services. A few years after the legal defeat, RoxioÂ bought the rights to its name, and in late 2003Â re-launched itÂ as a legal music download store. Napster faced stiff competition from the moment of its rebirth, mainly from Apple ComputerÂ and its popular iPods, and the iTunes Music Store. Napster currently offers a free 512MB digital music player, or a 1GB one for $50 to users who sign up for its monthly service for three months. It also started an advertising-supported music service in May that allows users to listen more than two million songs at no charge, up to five times each. The company reported a net loss of $9.8 millionÂ in the three months ending June 30, on revenue of $28.1 million.
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Napster creator Shawn Fanning is back with a new, legal file-sharing service called Snocap. The P2P service reportedly is close to signing a licensing deal with Universal Recording Group.
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Napster has extended its US music download store and subscription service to Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition-based Smartphones.
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Cell phones will soon be the biggest destination for music downloads, Napster says.
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AT&#38;T subscribers using the SMT5600 can now get songs downloaded to their handsets via the Napster to Go service.
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Napster launched a portable version of its digital music service in the U.S. and the U.K. on Thursday, hoping to tempt users with an "all-you-can-eat" monthly subscription model. Called Napster To Go, the company will charge users $14.95 in the U.S. and Â£14.95 ($29) in the U.K. per month, letting them download an unlimited number of songs onto compatible MP3 players as well as their PCs. Napster users can fill and refill compatible MP3 players with their choice of tracks, but must plug, or dock, the device into their PC at least once every 30 days into order for Napster to verify they are still paying customers. If a user stops paying their monthly subscription fee, the music will no longer play on the device. As with Apple's iTunes, Napster also offers users the option of buying individual tracks for $0.99 in the U.S. and Â£0.79 in the U.K. Napster is the first subscription music service to take advantage of new copy-protection software from Microsoft that allows users to listen to digital music over devices as well as on their PCs.ADVERTISEMENTWhite paper: Solutions to Address IT Control RequirementsLearn how BMC Software Solutions address requirements such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 in this 20 page whitepaper!
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Napster Inc, one of the largest digital music  retailers, said it will partner with Swedish telecom equipment  maker Ericsson and Chilean telecommunications company Entel PCS  to launch its mobile music service in Latin America for the  first time.