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The new “legit” Napster will be reanimated in time to lurch around and scare all the kiddies on Halloween:
- Napster, the pioneering song-swap service that was shut down for copyright infringement, is coming back next week to face the music as a paid site in a vastly changed online music arena.
Digital media company Roxio Inc., which bought Napster for $5 million last year, plans an Oct. 9 test launch for a new, legal version of the service called Napster 2.0, according to Napster spokesman Seth Oster.
Oster said the company also will unveil full details and the official launch date for Napster 2.0 at the service’s “beta,” or test, launch event in New York City, next Thursday, where over 200 members of the press and industry are invited.
A major recording artist will be featured at the event.
….Oster said Napster was confident it will be the strongest music service available by matching brand awareness with a superior product offering.
This past summer, Napster said it would be the only music Web site to offer consumers a choice between an a la carte download model or a premium subscription service.
Napster also will debut with a catalog of more than 500,000 songs, more than any other service to date.
….A few weeks ago, Napster and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd jointly announced they would offer a new digital audio player that will work seamlessly with Napster 2.0.
And on Tuesday, Napster and Microsoft Corp. announced a specially designed Napster 2.0 interface, which will be included on Microsoft’s new media center product. [Reuters]
