Napster launches in Canada, but much cheaper in than the UK

May 30, 2004

Napster
has launched its online music download store to Canadian consumers
which comes just a week following its last international launch in England. The Canadian
version offers music from the Five big labels and the Indies and has an
exclusive multi-year tie-in with Molson. However there are a few
differences between the new Canadian and
UK
versions. First the price and
second the song selection.

Napster
offers the UK a
selection of 500,000 songs where as the Canadian version only offers a selection
of 300,000. Singles cost CN$ 1.19
each which works out about 87c in US dollars; 12c cheaper than Napster's
US version and
less than half the price of the
UK version. Finally albums are charged at CN$ 9.95
which works out about US$ 7.29; still about US$ 10 cheaper than in the
UK.

A
subscription service is also available as a 7-day trial and then for CN$ 9.95
per month. The subscription offers
access to ten streaming radio stations and unlimited downloads which likely
cannot be transferred to other equipment or recorded to CD. GristyMcFisty submitted the
following news via our news
submit :

Napster rolled out its online music service out to Canadian consumers yesterday, announcing an exclusive, "multi-year" tie-in with Molson to provide the brewer with song downloads.

The move was signalled
last week when the company launched its UK service - the UK software CDs
also show Napster's www.napster.ca
URL.

Like the UK launch, the debut
of the Canadian service puts Napster ahead of its chief rival, Apple's
iTunes Music Store, which currently only serves US
customers.

But yesterday's announcement
highlights the problems all music download market players face in building
an international business. Napster currently offers 500,000 songs to UK
consumers, but their Canadian colleagues can choose from only 300,000
songs.

Napster Canada has licences
from the big five labels as well as
indies.

It looks like Napster is really trying to get
as many customers as possible to its service by using the original name original
defunct Napster that made P2P popular, providing a legal alternative to P2P services
in Universities and now going international to attract consumers from other
countries.

Feel free to
discuss and read more about online music services and stores on our Music
Downloads, P2P & Legal Issues Forum.

Source: The Register - eCommerce