AfterDawn: News

Napster launches service in the UK

The peer-to-peer service turned music store Napster launched its service in the United Kingdom on Thursday. Roxio, the owner of Napster, had earlier announced that the launch would take place by the end of summer.

Songs for the UK consumers are priced at £1.09 ($1.95) each or £9.95 ($17.82) per album. For a monthly subscription fee of £9.95 users can listen to an unlimited number of songs at up to three different PCs. Burning the songs on a CD or transferring them on a portable device, costs £0.99 ($1.77) per song, or £9.95 per album. A ten percent discount is offered to subscribers purchasing multiple tracks simultaneously.



Currently Napster has over 500,000 tracks in its selection. The service also offers, for instane, the Official UK Charts archive organised by genre, year and season.

Napster is offering a free, seven day trial period. You can register for the trial period until May 27th.

Roxio managed to beat Apple's iTunes to the UK market. It would be pretty safe to bet on Apple hastening its entrance to the Old Continent.

Source: NewsFactor

Written by: Jari Ketola @ 23 May 2004 13:30

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• 8 comments

• mgillesp

  Are these companies having a laugh?
  
  £1 a track? buying an albums worth of track is more expensive than buying the CD from a shop. Basically the record companies are just ripping off the record buying public (yet again), as they no longer have any packaging or distribution costs.
  
  Priced at this level, it's gonna fail to make any dent in illegal music downlading.
  
  As for the Napster specific server. The software is horrid, and installs the Roxio CD buring engine, which totally screwed up my system, and messed up my installed copy of Nero. It soon came off, and will not be going back on... back to Kazza, until the record companies have something worthwhile to offer...

  23.5.2004 14:10 #1

• Ketola

  I agree -- the prices are ridiculous. I'd pay 0.5 euros (or 30 pence) per track, not a cent more. Afterall, all I'm getting is a (limited) right to use a song.

  24.5.2004 01:20 #2

• tonypdean

  These prices are outrageous. £9.95 for an album when I can have the same album delivered to my door for £6.99. Surely they are just having a laugh - aren't they?

  24.5.2004 07:49 #3

• six.6.six

  Does the UK want this service? LOL! It basically BOMBED here in the US! They thought the Napsters name would draw money, customers flocked to it thinking it would be more than it was,(because of the name) once they found out what it was, GOODBYE!

  24.5.2004 11:25 #4

• mgillesp

  We don't really care who or what the online music service that wins will be. All I know, is with the current pricing, it's gonna fail.. You have to bear in mind, this is UK£, which means that iTunes with it's 99c downloads, this is $1.7 downloads...
  
  Rip off Britain again... I would not pay $0.99 for downloading these MP3's. $0.50 is realistic (£0.30).

  24.5.2004 12:44 #5

• brian100

  There is no way I would use this service?. £1 nicker for "lossy" music, they are surely taking the piss. Why dont they just be done with it and release all music for free at a lower bitrate?
  
  

  On Initial Viewing My Backup Looked Terrible,
  But With One Eye Closed It Aint Half Bad!!

  24.5.2004 23:34 #6

• Ghostdog

  They´re getting it wrong from the beggining. The tracks are way to expensive.

  25.5.2004 12:17 #7

• herbsman

  I would suggest to anyone I know (or may converse with) that they do NOT use this service as you'll pay more for an album than buying the original disc from high st shops [how f%*&ing ridiculous is that].
  
  If Roxio is installed aswell , then that's doubly taking the pi$$ ... as it's a bloody crap burning suite [as we all know].
  
  Have to go , before I start really getting mad ... up in herre !!

  26.5.2004 02:20 #8