Napster announced today that it has laid off 10 per cent of its workforce in order to cut costs while it is still negotiating with major record labels in order to license their content to its legal subscription service. Napster launched its legal service's beta test in beginning of this year, but the service only has content from various indie labels.
Napster's CEO Konrad Hilbers told that company intends to fill the positions that it now cut, once it gets the full service launched. Napster hasn't settled its copyright infrigement cases with major record labels yet, but federal judge Patel, who has handled the case since 1999, has put some extra pressure on labels which would cause an earlier-than-expected settlement between Napster and "Big Five" and would ultimately open ports for Napster to license labels' music as well.
