Listen to 2m tracks - for free
2006-05-03 08:27
New York - Napster Inc, the one-time renegade music download service, has returned to its roots with a new web service offering fans the chance to listen to over two million tracks for free.
The new service, launched on Monday at Napster.com, is supported by advertising and follows months of negotiations with record companies.
Napster will split advertising revenue with the record companies. Revenue is based on the number of times one of their artists' songs is played.
The new service is in addition to Napster's existing subscription service.
It allows users to send direct links of chosen tracks to friends. Users can listen to songs on the free site up to five times - before having to pay.
"We have built this new Napster.com as an open platform," said chief executive Chris Gorog.
Gorog said he expects the free service will increase visits to the site.
Free service will hook new listeners
The site sells music downloads and has seen about two million visitors a month.
A higher traffic rate would also generate more advertising dollars for the company.
Napster hopes the free service will also serve as a word-of-mouth marketing tool to hook new listeners onto its paid subscription service.
"I don't think free music is a hard sell," said Gorog.
The new Napster service has a web-based music player, is compatible with internet browsers on most computers, and does not require a user to download any software.
Napster is ranked second in music download services in the United States but is far behind Apple Computer Inc's iTunes.
iTunes dominates market
According to research by the NPD Group, iTunes dominates 70% of the internet music market.
Napster has about 600 000 subscribers and offers unlimited online listening to tracks at $9.95 a month, or $14.95 for tracks to be transferred onto a separate device such as an MP3 player.
But it is not compatible with Apple's iPod, the leading portable music player on the market.
The original Napster, founded by Shawn Fanning in 1999, provoked the ire, and legal challenge, of major record companies.
It was the first online music-sharing service that did not charge for downloads or compensate labels and artists.
A US court closed the service in 2001. Its assets were bought by Roxio Inc in 2002, and a legal version of Napster was relaunched.