Briefs: Napster Germany opens for business

Napster announced Thursday the launch of a digital music service in Germany.

The California-based company said that German residents can download Napster software for free at www.napster.de, where they can also sign up for a free seven-day trial of the service. Napster Germany features over 1.5 million songs.

The official launch of Napster Germany follows the completion of agreements with the country's major record labels, as well as over 150 independent labels. These agreements allow Napster to deliver more than 125,000 albums -- including 20,000 German albums -- and music from over 600,000 artists -- including 135,000 local acts -- spanning all genres, including rock, pop, hip-hop, R&B, classical and jazz.

"Napster is very pleased to bring the biggest brand in on-line music to the number one music market in Continental Europe," said Chris Gorog, chairman and CEO of Napster. "We believe German music fans will be very excited to see where we have taken the original genius of Napster and expanded on the ideas of unlimited music discovery and sharing."

Copyright 2005 by United Press International