Napster Returns with Paid Mp3 Downloads

Napster, the grandfather of peer to peer music file sharing, today announced the much-awaited Napster 2.0 has begun beta testing and will be available to all music fans in the United States on October 29th. The new service will offer 99-cent mp3 music downloads to anyone with a PC and the largest digital music library in the world with over 500,000 mp3 songs. Napster 2.0 will also feature a series of innovative partnerships that empower consumers to move their favorite music from the PC to digital audio devices, into the living room and their cars. Music fans can begin pre-registering for the service immediately at www.napster.com and get five free downloads when the service launches widely to consumers.
“Napster invented online music and we are reinventing it with Napster 2.0,” said Chris Gorog, Chairman and CEO of Roxio, Inc., Napster’s parent company. “Napster 2.0 is unequivocally the most complete and comprehensive music service in the world.”

Napster 2.0 allows anyone with a PC to freely sample the world’s largest and most diverse online collection of music from across all genres. An elegant user interface will allow people to quickly and easily search for and purchase music, discover artists, burn CD’s and transfer music to portable devices for 99 cents per song or $9.95 per album. Music fans also have the option to upgrade to Napster’s premium service for $9.95 per month, which offers unlimited listening and downloading, 40 commercial-free interactive radio stations and a collection of community features, including the ability to email tracks to friends and share play lists with other Napster users. True to Napster’s commitment of an open environment, any visitor to the service can - free of charge and with no obligation - download the new Napster 2.0 service, watch music videos on-demand, listen to 30-second music clips, browse decades of Billboard charts, read Napster’s new online magazine, “Fuzz,” and take full advantage of the most robust music recommendation engine ever created. Napster 2.0 also allows users to import other music files from their hard drives into the service, enabling them to access all their music in one central location, and will provide members with customer support via both email and phone.

“I’ve used Napster 2.0 and it’s really great,” said Shawn Fanning, creator of the original Napster service and an advisor to Napster 2.0 on the user experience. “It has community features and tools for discovering new music that were important parts of the original Napster experience. It’s fast, easy to use, and the sound quality surpasses that of the original. Digital music takes a big step forward today.”

Adding further mobility and freedom to the Napster 2.0 experience are partnerships with Microsoft and Gateway that allow music fans to experience Napster from the comfort of their couch using a TV and a remote control. As previously announced, Napster will be the featured music service on Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004. Today Napster and Gateway are announcing that consumers who purchase Gateway’s Media Center PC’s any time this Fall will receive one month of the Napster 2.0 Media Center version, free of charge. In addition, Gateway later this year will be the only PC manufacturer to ship Napster pre-installed on every consumer desktop PC it sells, including 150 songs pre-loaded on the hard drives of these systems.

“Mobility is the ultimate freedom for music lovers and is at the core of the Napster 2.0 experience,” explained Napster President Mike Bebel. “These important strategic alliances allow us to ensure that Napster fans can enjoy their music on their terms. Only Napster delivers on the true vision of the celestial jukebox - the music you want, when you want it, where you want it. It’s the future of online music, and we’re delighted to deliver it to our customers today.”

Napster also enjoys a long-standing relationship with Microsoft’s Windows Media Player 9 Series, in which the Napster 2.0 service will be accessible to music fans through the Player’s “Services” tab. Additionally, Napster users can utilize the Windows Media Player 9 Series to transfer songs to most of the top-selling portable devices sold in the marketplace today.

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