Petteri Pyyny
3 Sep 2004 12:35
Napster announced yesterday that it is testing a new subscription service model that would add portable devices to the list of its subscription service's supported devices. The idea is basically to rent unlimited number of tracks for users with a monthly fee.
Napster's current subscription model allows users to download unlimited number of music tracks to their desktop PC and those tracks are playable as long as the user pays his/her monthly subscription fee of $9.95. The nag is that those tracks can't be burned to a CD or transferred to any other device -- for that privilege each song has to be purchased separately as a permanent download. But the new Napster To Go service allows users to transfer those subscription-tied files to their portable audio players as well, as long as the device supports Microsoft's new DRM scheme, dubbed as Janus -- and only two devices support it so far.
The service is planned to go live later this year and will costs $14.95 a month.
Source: Internet Week