Chicago (IL) – Napster has attempted to resurrect itself with a reduced monthly fee of $5. The company is currently offering users five “unrestricted” MP3 downloads (per month) along with unlimited access to Napster’s on-demand music streaming service.
“There’s no need to settle for 30-second clips to decide if you want to buy a song,” spun Napster CEO Chris Gorog. “For five bucks now you can have access to our entire music catalog and get five MP3s to add to your permanent collection.”
According to Gorog, Napster users can now:
- Listen to any track in CD quality from a catalog of more than seven million songs.
- Choose from more than 60 commercial-free radio stations and more than 1,400 playlists.
- Enjoy top hits from more than 50 years of Billboard charts.
- Play MP3s on any MP3 player, including iPod, iPhone and music-enabled MP3 mobile phones.
Napster, originally defined as a peer-to-peer music file sharing service, was developed by university student Shawn Fanning in June 1999. However, the music industry eventually accused Napster of massive copyright violations, which led to a court-ordered injunction and susbequent shut down in 2001.
Napster was relaunched as a legitimate music subscription service by Roxio in 2003. The corporation was then purchased by Best Buy in September 2008 for $121 million.
