Monday, August 06, 2007

Mobile Drives Napster Comeback

The mobile phone and not the PC could be Napster's salvation. The company is marketing Napster Over the Air which gives cell phone customers access to the same music libraries as their PC subscriptions.

So the mobile music showdown is lining up to be Apple's iTunes, which obliterated the MP3 players, versus phone-based services. Napster has been on a roll, signing up Toshiba and HP distribute its music service on PCs and laptops, scoring a deal with NTT DoCoMo for its wireless service, and hiring a new COO.

Napster is still in the red, but at least their cash reserves are growing.

If Napster and others have success with mobile subscription services, Apple may have to consider adding a pay-to-listen service. At some point everyone gets tired of listening to their music library and wants to hear something new, right?

After a call from Allison Busch of The Blueshirt Group (for Napster), I changed the second paragraph from CEO to COO. Here is what Allison said regarding our mixup...

"Mobile Drives Napster Comeback" contains a factual error in the last sentence of the second paragraph. Chris Allen is Napster's new Chief Operating Officer, replacing Laura Goldberg. Chris Gorog is still the company's CEO.

By John Gartner at 09:27 AM | Comments (0)

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