On C|NET there was an interesting article about the plans of napster. Here a hap of the story:
In a bid to prevent a possible court-ordered shutdown, Napster executives on Tuesday offered record companies $1 billion over five years for the right to allow copyrighted music to be traded on the popular file-swapping network. [...] Specifically, Napster is offering $150 million per year to the five major record companies and $50 million annually to be shared by independent labels. |
Napster has also been talking about what the monthly subscription should cost :
Napster is planning a tiered membership model that includes a "Basic Membership" plan and a "Premium Membership" plan. Definitive pricing has not been set. However, Napster is looking at a price range of $2.95 to $4.95 per month for the Basic membership that would have a monthly file transfer limitation built in. The Premium membership, which could cost between $5.95 and $9.95 per month would offer unlimited file transfers.
Although it's unknown how many customers would actually stay with Napster's service if it switched to a paying model, recent surveys by Webnoize and Harris Interactive each have found that close to 70 percent of consumers surveyed have said they would pay for a subscription to Napster.
Those dynamics could change if fewer people were to use the service, however, because it would mean far fewer songs available for download.
Source: Cnet
