GristyMcFisty reports us that Roxio, parent
company of the first and once very popular peer-to-peer software Napster,
is planning to give people a chance to try out the newly launched music
download service, with a three-day free trial period
this month. According to Roxio, Napster
2.0 offers an online music catalog of over 500,000 tracks along with access to 40
on-demand radio stations throughout December:
 The free installation of Napster 2.0 is for users in the U.S.
only and is currently only compatible with systems running Microsoft's
Windows XP or Windows 2000, according to Melissa Foo, Napster's retail
marketing manager in the U.K.
As an added incentive to sign up for the Napster
service, the company is also offering five free tracks that can be burned
to CD or transferred to one of 40 compatible portable music devices for
those who subscribe to the service for $ 9.95 per month after their free
trial ends.
Holiday Shopping
The paid-service Napster has licensing deals with all
five major labels and a handful of independents. Though such licensing
deals put constrictions on the Napster service, Roxio is still a
CD-burning software provider, and as part of its holiday marketing blitz,
it is offering Napster Burnpak. The product couples Napster with Roxio's
Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 Starter Kit for $ 29.99, and with the December
offer consumers get to choose five free tracks from Napster that they can
download to burn to CD or DVD.
Last, but not least, the company is offering a
stocking-stuffer-sized prepaid Napster Music Card that holds 15 digital
music downloads for $ 14.85. The cards can be obtained at nearly 20,000
retail locations in the U.S., Napster said.
 As for a Napster 2.0 outside of the U.S., Foo would only say that
the company does have a gameplan for launching the service in Europe
sometime in the new
year.
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Source: Yahoo! News
