We reported last week that Napster had a loss of 15 million dollars in the first 2 months of operation. Now, according to this press release, Napster 2.0 is going strong.
Napster®, a division of Roxio, today announced that it has recently become the first PC-only digital music service to sell over five million downloads. The Company also announced that it has served hundreds of millions of page views since its late-October launch and has attracted over 1.5 million basic and premium members. Napster, which generates multiple revenue streams from a unique combination of single and album downloads, prepaid download cards, premium subscriptions and the licensing of its popular brand, is expected to generate at least million in music sales in its first year. Napster is the only service selected by universities to provide students with easy access to digital music. Its implementation at Pennsylvania State University was the first of its kind and, having recently announced a second licensing agreement with The University of Rochester, Napster is currently in negotiations with a number of other institutions across the country that are interested in participating in this unique program. The Company also plans to expand licensing programs for the Napster brand, which is the most recognized brand in online music according to research by Piper Jaffray. Napster has already announced major partnerships with global companies such as Samsung and Miller Brewing, brought co-branded products to mass retailers like Target and successfully rolled out the prepaid Napster download card to over 26,000 retail locations. |
For comparison, Apple's iTunes music service claims to have sold over 30 million downloads in the last month. Let's hope Napster 2.0 will make a good competition against them and as a result, lowers the prices for us customers.
Source: Napster
