Napster expands its music experience

May 1, 2006

In an effort to attract subscribers, Napster will offer a new service allowing music fans to listen to over 2 million tracks up to fives times each for free.

The once infamous music download company launched the service Monday along with a new Web-based music player to play the tracks as part of a comprehensive Web strategy, the company said.

Napster also announced two additional features -- NapsterLinks and Narchive -- which will allow fans to add links to new music on Napster or share personal music experiences with other fans as part of a community blog on artists.

The features are in addition to more than 150 pre-programmed playlists available to music-goers as well as its Napster To Go subscription services.

The formal announcement will be made by Napster Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chris Gorog as part of his keynote speech at the 2nd annual MUSEXPO event in Los Angeles Monday.

"Napster was born of the idea of eliminating all barriers to discovering, enjoying and sharing music and of putting the power in the hands of fans," Gorog said. "With a vision to empower music fans in a legal environment, with an open, all-inclusive platform, we are very excited to share our new free music experience at Napster.com."

"With all the progress the digital music industry has made over the past few years, a digital music model that fully-satisfies everyone -- fans, artists, labels and rights holders -- has yet to surface," he added. "We believe we have taken a significant step toward achieving this."

Copyright 2006 by United Press International