News
Napster exploring possible sale
By LC Angell
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Tuesday, September 19, 2006
News Category: Digital Media
Beleaguered subscription music company Napster said it is considering selling the company. “There’s been interest by third parties to acquire the company,” said Napster CEO Chris Gorog, adding that other proposals have included strategic partnerships or joint ventures. “That activity has heated up as we’ve gotten traction with a lot of our new products… There’s been a lot of speculation” about which companies or industries would be interested in Napster, Gorog said. “Any company that is executing at a high level in digital media will likely have at least a conceptual interest in looking at Napster.” Napster was originally an illegal music sharing site before being shut down in 2001. It was purchased by Roxio and relaunched in 2003. Napster said as of June 30, it had 512,000 paid subscribers, down from 606,000 in the prior quarter.
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1
How stupid was Roxio to go down this road? Sell Toast? Buy Napster? Change their name? Who really thought this would be profitable for them?
Posted by Gordy. in Atlanta, GA on September 19, 2006 at 8:55 AM (PDT)
2
clearly Napster is in trouble. My question is, what happens to all the people who’ve “hired” tens of thousands of songs if the company goes under. Suddenly a subscription model doesn’t sound quite so flash.
Posted by Lawrence Mikkelsen in New Zealand on September 19, 2006 at 11:12 AM (PDT)
3
Apple buys Napster… Apple get money from Napster subscriptions, plus is half a step closer to having some of the Napster-exclusive (if there are any) artists on iTunes.
Or integrates Napster into iTunes, and lets iPod users have a subscription service if they want.
Of course, if they’re losing business, it may not be good for Apple.
Posted by Eric on September 19, 2006 at 12:59 PM (PDT)
4
lawrence my thoughts as well not such a good time to be a subscriber of napster. theses people have lost all that money over the p[ast few years at least with itunes there are loop holes to release the drm and own it outright.
just my 2 cents
phil
Posted by BIGP in Texas on September 19, 2006 at 2:30 PM (PDT)
5
aw man, thats a real shame. they tried so hard to stay in the game. just look at what they did recently: http://www.napstergirl.com kinda sad to see it up for sale like that - we all used napster at one point.
will whoever buys it keep the name napster?
Posted by Gary on September 22, 2006 at 9:23 PM (PDT)
6
Wow thats kinda crazy, ^^^^^ that commercial kinda shows what lengths they went to for new customers.
Posted by Randy on September 28, 2006 at 7:55 PM (PDT)