Napster is the world's most recognized brand in online music.
Napster has extensive content agreements with the five major record
labels, as well as hundreds of independents. Napster delivers
access to the largest catalog of online music, with more than 1,000,000
tracks spanning all genres from Eminem to Miles Davis.
Napster has offices in London, Los Angeles, San Diego, and New York.

NAPSTER IGNITES CONSUMER LAUNCH OF WORLD’S FIRST PORTABLE
SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
Rolls Out Napster To Go’s $30 Million Dollar Marketing Campaign and
Alliances With Creative, Dell and iriver
LOS ANGELES, CA - (February 3, 2005) -
Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS), the biggest brand in digital music,
announced today the consumer release of its groundbreaking Napster To Go
technology and the unveiling of the new Napster 3.0. Napster To Go, the
world’s first portable subscription service, lets consumers move an
unlimited amount of songs from Napster’s million plus catalog to
compatible MP3 players for one, low monthly fee of $14.95. Napster To Go
marks the most significant milestone to date in the rapidly-growing
digital music industry and makes costly download-only stores seem
antiquated by comparison. The release will be accompanied by a major $30
million marketing campaign supported by strategic alliances with leading
consumer electronics manufacturers Creative, Dell and iriver.
"Napster To Go provides infinitely greater value and is much more
exciting than the iTunes pay-per-download model," said Chris Gorog,
Napster's chairman and CEO. "This is what consumers want and Napster is
once again proud to lead the industry by being the first in the world to
offer this revolutionary new way to enjoy music."
A fully-integrated marketing program will support the release of Napster
To Go, led by a currently-under-wraps February 6, 2005 Super Bowl
television advertisement. This will be complemented by the new "Works
with Napster To Go" logo program that enables consumers to easily
identify Napster To Go compatible MP3 players at retail. Napster’s
initiatives will feature the Creative Zen Micro, the Dell Pocket DJ and
iriver’s H10 MP3 players in retail and direct programs as well as
prominent placement in its advertising. All three manufacturers are
participating in the "Works with Napster To Go" logo program and will
include a free one-month Napster To Go trial subscription bundled with
each device purchase.
"The combination of a subscription service like
Napster To Go and one of Creative's portable music players, like the
award-winning Zen Micro, opens up a whole new paradigm for music
discovery," said Mark Adams, vice president of sales and marketing for
Creative. "It's so much fun to go through the Napster catalog of over a
million songs and fill up your Zen Micro. You can mix tunes from
favorite artists, albums, or choose some completely new music -- it's
like being your own personal DJ."
"Offering our customers the greatest freedom in choosing online music
services was fundamental in designing the award-winning H10 5GB player,"
said Jonathan Sasse, president of iriver America. "By supporting the
innovative Napster To Go service, we are confident that our customers
will see real value in Napster's music subscription service."
The robust marketplace of MP3 players ensures music lovers have a wealth
of choices with which to enjoy the excitement, flexibility and value of
Napster To Go. Napster’s long-term relationship with Best Buy, the
largest electronics retailer in the U.S., will provide expanded in-store
support of Napster To Go and many of the Works with Napster To Go-tagged
devices. Beginning Sunday, Feb. 6, the Creative Zen Micro, Gateway MP3
Photo Jukebox, iriver H10, and the Creative, iriver, and Samsung
Portable Media Centers will all be Napster To Go compatible. The Samsung
YH-920 will require firmware upgrades scheduled for release within the
next few weeks, as will the Dell Pocket DJ, which will be available
direct from Dell at www.dell.com.
"Napster To Go is an exciting new product that will help our customers
to really start understanding the full benefits of digital music," said
Scott Young, vice president of digital entertainment for Best Buy.
"We've worked hard to educate consumers about digital music and the
benefits of subscription services. Being able to take the music with you
on a portable player should help take the popularity of subscription
services to the next level."
Napster 3.0 also builds on the service’s award winning community
features and includes new offerings such as Playlists To Go, which
allows fans to transfer ready-made play lists of up to 50 songs to a
device with one click of the mouse. Napster’s hundreds of thousands of
subscribers continue to enjoy unlimited listening to full-length songs
from the largest digital music catalog in the world, as well as
interactive, commercial-free radio stations, six decades of Billboard
chart information and a host of other features. Napster To Go became
available in preview mode to users of the Windows Media Player 10 in
September, 2004. For non-subscription members, Napster also offers the
Napster Light a la carte download store.
About Napster
Napster, the biggest brand in digital music, is a subscription
service that enables fans to freely sample the world’s largest and most
diverse online collection of music and move an unlimited amount of songs
to compatible MP3 players. Napster (www.napster.com) members have access
to songs from all major labels and hundreds of independents and have
more ways to discover, share and acquire new music and old favorites
with community features like the ability to email tracks to friends and
browse other members' collections. Napster also offers Napster Light, a
"lighter" version of the service for those who just want to purchase
songs and albums a la carte. Napster is currently available in the
United States, Canada and the U.K. and is headquartered in Los Angeles
with offices in San Jose, San Diego, New York and London.
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press
release, in particular matters related to the growth of the online music
industry and Napster’s strategic relationships with marketing partners
and device manufacturers are forward-looking statements that are subject
to certain risks and uncertainties such as the new and rapidly changing
nature of the online music industry, dependence on the growth of the
Internet and broadband technologies, and failure of the
Napster service to interoperate with the hardware of Napster’s
customers, that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those projected. Additional information on these and other factors are
contained in Napster’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), including the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K as
filed with the SEC on January 21, 2005, copies of which are available at
the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. Napster assumes
no obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this
press release.
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Copyright
© 2005 Napster, LLC. All rights reserved. Napster, Napster To Go and
Napster Light are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Napster,
Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries.