AfterDawn: News

Napster gathers lots of subscribers

The legitimate form of Napster should not be written off just yet. Today, Napster announced that it may beat its previous guidance for the quarter and report revenue of more than $28 million, sending the company's share price up. The company has revealed that it currently has 830,000 paying subscribers, making it the biggest music subscription service currently available worldwide.

In March, Napster added 40,000 new subscribers to its service through its own effort, but also picked up a nice 225,000 subscribers from AOL Music Now. Napster also recently struck a deal with AT&T, which will give AT&T mobile phone users access to Napster's huge catalog of music for free for one year.



Napster also offers its services to several Universities in an effort to switch students to legal downloading. Many consider Napster's music rental service (and similar) a bad way to shop for digital music. However, the latest figures show that Napster is once again rebuilding itself somewhat.

Source:
Ars Technica

Written by: James Delahunty @ 4 Apr 2007 17:26

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• 2 comments

• ZippyDSM

  Holding its own or delaying the trip to the abyss ?

  4.4.2007 22:35 #1

• SProdigy

  I subscribe to Napster, and would rather pay $10 a month to listen to subscription music and 99 cents if I really like the song, that way I can burn a CD with 15 of my favorites for the same price as some one-hit wonder's album. I'm still putting back in the industry, but taking only what I want. I think it's a good trade off and I don't have to worry about the P2P police coming after me.
  
  I think RealNetworks' Rhapsody will be the first to go, even though they have the most subscribers and are backed by Best Buy. The program has gone through a horrible shift with its newer version and chaotic DRM scheme. It's turned off a lot of long time subscribers to that service, including myself.
  
  Of course, if Apple wanted to risk a portion of their pocket fattening model, they would include DRM protected subscription music, and with the amount of iPods in the market, they would easily crush the other stores without lifting a finger.

  5.4.2007 04:16 #2