Napster to rise again
2003-05-21 14:10
Washington - The once-wildly popular online music site Napster will make a comeback, its new owner has said as it announced plans to acquire the Pressplay music venture and use it as the basis for a new Napster.
The announcement by the music software firm Roxio said it was acquiring Pressplay, the online music venture of Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment in a cash and stock deal worth an estimated $39.5 million.
"As a result of this transaction, Roxio has acquired a legal digital music distribution infrastructure and catalogue rights with all five major music labels," the Santa Clara, California, firm said in a statement.
Pressplay will serve as the foundation for the launch of Roxio's new legal online music service under the Napster brand.
Napster, which had some 70 million users at its peak, was effectively shut down by the music industry, which accused it of widespread piracy of copyrighted songs.
Roxio acquired the assets of Napster in bankruptcy court last year.
Since the demise of Napster, other music-swapping services have taken its place, but shutting them down has become more problematic because they do not store music on their own computers.
Pressplay is a subscription service launched by Universal, a unit of French media giant Vivendi Universal, and the entertainment unit of Japan's Sony.
"Roxio's acquisition of Pressplay significantly accelerates the development of our online music business which is central to the strategic development of our company," said Chris Gorog, Roxio's chairman and chief executive.
"With our acquisition of Napster we obtained the most powerful brand in the online music space. Now, with our acquisition of Pressplay, we have the most complete and scaleable legal technology infrastructure to use as a platform to re-launch Napster.
"After taking the necessary time to add features, enhance functionality and improve usability we will launch a new service with an extremely compelling consumer experience that builds on the qualities of the Napster brand."
The music industry has complained fiercely about online piracy, but its own legal ventures to distribute music online through subscriptions have had little success.
- AFX