James Delahunty
4 Apr 2007 17:26
The legitimate form of Napster should not be written off just yet. Today, Napster announced that it may beat its previous guidance for the quarter and report revenue of more than $28 million, sending the company's share price up. The company has revealed that it currently has 830,000 paying subscribers, making it the biggest music subscription service currently available worldwide.
In March, Napster added 40,000 new subscribers to its service through its own effort, but also picked up a nice 225,000 subscribers from AOL Music Now. Napster also recently struck a deal with AT&T, which will give AT&T mobile phone users access to Napster's huge catalog of music for free for one year.
Napster also offers its services to several Universities in an effort to switch students to legal downloading. Many consider Napster's music rental service (and similar) a bad way to shop for digital music. However, the latest figures show that Napster is once again rebuilding itself somewhat.
Source:
Ars Technica