Napster: Recent Developments of the Company and Its Industry - Assignment Example

After a takeover offer of $2.43 million by the Private Media Group, Napsters brand and logos were acquired at a bankruptcy auction by the company Roxio, Inc in 2002 and the online service was called press play in 2003. At present Napster, LLC (formerly Roxio, Inc.) is an online music provider offering a variety of purchase and subscription models. The new legal online music service let user’s access music through a subscription or on a fee-per-song basis. The Napster PC-based subscription service is currently available in the U.S., UK, Canada, Germany, and Japan.

There are two types of subscription service offering at present Napster To Go, The portable subscription tier, which offers music fans to the unlimited transfer of music to their choice of compatible MP3 players, cell phones and PDAs in addition to unlimited streaming and PC downloading for $14.95 per month. Napster also offers Napster Light, pay-per-track (no monthly subscription fee) and Napster.com, a free advertising-supported website that enables full-length versions of over 3 million tracks three times to stream/listen.

It had also launched NapsterLinks, which links to all of the music in Napster catalog that can be embedded into WebPages, blogs or in emails for sharing anywhere on the web. Napster also offers a mobile music service called Napster Mobile. This service enables mobile users to search and browse Napster’s music catalog and preview, purchase and play songs on their mobile handset through an integrated music player. June 27, 2006: The availability of Napster 3.7, an updated version of its PC application featuring PowerSync, which optimized the process of transferring subscription music content to compatible MP3 players.