Neowin News Feed for: Napster

Napster rises from the grave, as the new name for Rhapsody

Justin Luna — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 14:16:02 +0000

Music streaming service Rhapsody has announced that it will be rebranding to the name Napster, the service it acquired back in 2011. The announcement is a part of the company's restructuring plans. Read more...

Napster founder working on set-top box which streams films on release

Paul Hill — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 12:26:01 +0000

Napster founder - Sean Parker - is reportedly talking to major film studios on a new set-top box which will stream content to users on the first day of release, the only caveat being the hefty price. Read more...

Former Napster executive killed by police patrol while cycling

Phi Ha — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 19:26:17 +0000

Former Napster executive Milton Everett Olin Jr was killed after being struck by a police car. The cyclist was in the bike lane when he was struck by the deputy, who was heading in the same direction. Read more...

Trivia Tuesday: Digital music, from Atari to iTunes

Tyler Holman — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:12:24 +0000

Everyone uses their computer to listen to their favorite tunes, whether it's a PC or an iPhone, but it wasn't always so. Delve into the history of digital music with this week's Trivia Tuesday. Read more...

Napster creators revealing new project June 5th

John Callaham — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:16:56 +0000

Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, two of the main people behind the launch of Napster, will take the cover off its new venture, Airtime, at a press event in New York City June 5th. Read more...

Streaming services lose over 200 smaller music labels

John Callaham — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:39:20 +0000

A company that owns over 200 smaller music labels has decided to pull its music from Spotify and other streaming online music services, claiming such companies actually hurt the music industry. Read more...

Best Buy to sell Napster to Rhapsody

Paul Ferson — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:21:08 +0000

Best Buy has unveiled and confirmed plans to sell the music streaming service Napster to fellow music streaming service Rhapsody. Read more...

Napster lives, $5 a month subscription package

Brad Sams — Mon, 18 May 2009 12:08:31 +0000

BestBuy has re-launched Napster and it's trying a new untested business model. The basic premise of the cheapest plan is that you can get unlimited streaming of music, keep 5 DRM free MP3's each... Read more...

Best Buy Buys Napster

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:10:33 +0000

In a bid to challenge Apple's dominant iTunes music service, electronics retalier Best Buy plans to buy digital music service Napster for $121 million in cash. Best Buy announced on Monday it would pay $2.65... Read more...

Napster moves to MP3-only music download format

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:30:53 +0000

Napster, one of the largest digital music retailers, said Monday it would start selling downloads in the MP3 format from the second quarter of this year in the latest blow to copy protection for songs... Read more...

BMG settles Napster lawsuit for $130M

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 04:38:33 +0000

Media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG has settled a copyright infringement case by paying $130 million US to the National Music Publishers' Association, a trade association that represents more than 700 U.S. music publishers. The latest deal... Read more...

Circuit City and Napster partner on music service

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 20:33:04 +0000

Circuit City has announced a partnership with Napster that realizes a subscription music service dubbed "Circuit City + Napster" which will offer "all the same great music discovery and community features such as personalized recommendations,... Read more...

AOL Scraps Music Now in Favor of Napster

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:14:59 +0000

AOL has scrapped AOL Music Now and is calling Napster their exclusive supplier of subscription music for its AOL Music site. Over the next 60 days, AOL's 350,000 paid accounts will be transferred over to... Read more...

Napster for sale?

Brad Wardell — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:45:00 +0000

Napster, which started its life as an illegal MP3 sharing service created by a college student in Visual Basic has evolved into a $100 million plus corporation. Despite the vast increase in revenue, the... Read more...

Napster UK to give away free MP3 players

Daniel Fleshbourne — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:20:02 +0000

Napster UK is giving away free MP3 players to all new subscribers of its portable music service. Anyone taking out a three-month Napster to Go subscription from 14 September will receive a 512MB Sandisk Sansa... Read more...

Napster rues Microsoft, Player Glitches

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 05:56:15 +0000

Technical glitches by Microsoft and the digital music device makers have hampered Napster Inc.'s ability to close the gap with Apple's iTunes, the dominant online music service, Napster's chief executive said on Tuesday. "There is... Read more...

Napster to start on-campus music service

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 23:35:21 +0000

Computer giant Dell and the music service Napster stated today that they would partner together to bring a new digital music download service to U.S. college campuses. The deal will call on Dell... Read more...

Napster, Ericsson to Team up on Music-Downloading Service

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 14:50:50 +0000

Banking on the idea that mobile phones will replace digital music players, Napster and Sony Ericsson plan to announce today a joint venture to make a music-downloading service available to cell phone operators. ... Read more...

Exclusive -PyMusique Creator : Napster DRM Cracked

Wed, 13 Apr 2005 22:41:36 +0000

Neowin previously reported on the work done by Cody Brocious to get iTunes working on Linux; in a soon to be released updated version, Cody and his group have announced plans to support the Napster... Read more...

Napster hack leads to free downloads

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 20:27:42 +0000

It's like the old Napster all over again: all the music you want for free, as long as you're willing to get a little geeky. Blogs were buzzing Tuesday about the resurgence... Read more...

Napster ads fail to impress

Brad Wardell — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 03:47:07 +0000

The Superbowl is not just a contest of football teams, it's a contest of ads. And finishing dead last in the ad contest this year was none other than Napster's advertisement. ... Read more...

Napster trades on Nasdaq

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 17:07:06 +0000

Napster has begun its life as an independent company, following the completion of the sale of former parent Roxio's software operation. Roxio's stock began trading under the NAPS indent yesterday as the company dropped its... Read more...

Napster founder basks in funding, label support

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 17:45:15 +0000

With $10 million in venture funding and the backing of at least one major record label, Napster founder Shawn Fanning will officially unveil his new peer-to-peer music company on Monday. As previously... Read more...

Napster offers service to AT&T Wireless users

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 23:06:44 +0000

Napster on Wednesday said that Napster to Go, its fledgling portable music service, is now available to AT&T Wireless subscribers who use the Audiovox SMT5600 smart phone. The service lets customers download... Read more...

Napster befriends PayPal

Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:05:13 +0000

Digital music service Napster announced Monday that customers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada can now pay for tunes using PayPal. Napster users can choose to pay their monthly... Read more...

Roxio sells software division, focuses on Napster

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 23:26:45 +0000

Roxio said Monday that it will sell its consumer software division for $80 million and focus wholly on its Napster digital music business in the future. The company plans to officially change... Read more...

Napster gives away music players with subscription

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 19:35:04 +0000

If you like Roxio's digital media player and Napster then you're in luck. With a one-year subscription you can get a Rio Chiba Sport or 1.5GB Rio Nitrus. Roxio Inc.'s Napster... Read more...

Napster Is Back - And This Time It's Legal

Fri, 21 May 2004 20:26:05 +0000

Three years after it was closed down by the record industry, the online music service Napster is back. Napster, which pioneered illegal music downloading, surprised the record industry yesterday by unveiling a legitimate UK Web... Read more...

Napster Calls on Linux

Wed, 10 Mar 2004 20:53:54 +0000

In an effort to help its large-scale customers conserve bandwidth and speed up the delivery of online music, Napster is using open standards technology from IBM as part of a cache-management system, the company says.... Read more...

Napster schedules UK launch

Daniel Fleshbourne — Wed, 03 Mar 2004 09:56:58 +0000

Napster will launch a service dedicate to UK music buyers by "the end of summer", the company revealed today. Such a date puts it behind Apple's iTunes Music Store, which is expected to launch in... Read more...

Napster and iTunes Euro debut delayed

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 00:00:22 +0000

Old-fashioned red tape is delaying the eagerly awaited European launches for iTunes and Napster. A maze of licensing contracts, music release dates that differ by country and incompatible billing systems have combined... Read more...

Napster to extend to Europe

Sat, 17 Jan 2004 17:52:42 +0000

Napster, whom has recently relaunched as a legal service is the US, is set to extend the service into Europe from Spring. Leanne Sharman, the former head of sales and... Read more...

Napster fills in the blanks with CD deals

Daniel Fleshbourne — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 20:26:19 +0000

Napster is teaming up with Imation, a maker of optical media products, to market and distribute Napster-branded blank CDs and DVDs in North America. The online music company also announced an agreement to sell the... Read more...

Penn State and Napster Team Up

Mon, 10 Nov 2003 10:56:42 +0000

Penn State University has teamed up with Napster to offer students free downloads from the library of over "500,000 songs, as well as 40 radio stations, access to six decades of Billboard chart data, an... Read more...

OSNews: First look at Napster

Brad Wardell — Fri, 31 Oct 2003 05:03:46 +0000

OSNews has a thorough first look at Napster 2. Napster began its life as essentially an auto-music-piracy program. But it's gone straight under new management and now offers subscriptions in exchange for music purchasing. ... Read more...

Napster unveils payment cards

Daniel Fleshbourne — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:48:23 +0000

The online music retailer has developed its own prepaid cards to target teens and others without credit cards. Online music retailer Napster unveiled prepaid cards on Monday, so people -- particularly teens -- can download... Read more...

Napster to relaunch before Christmas

Mon, 28 Jul 2003 12:53:00 +0000

Napster is to relaunch before Christmas offering both subscription and free services. Napster 2.0 will allow users access to up to 500,000 tracks by paying for individual downloads or a monthly subscription. Napster has signed... Read more...

Son of Napster

Thu, 24 Jul 2003 23:22:25 +0000

Robert X. Cringely has a new idea for an online music business which he calls Son of Napster, or Snapster for short. Written by Robert X. Cringely Napster... Read more...

Napster Is coming back

Tue, 20 May 2003 01:20:48 +0000

Roxio, provider of the best selling digital media software in the world announced today that it acquired Pressplay, the nation's premier online music service. As a result, Roxio has acquired a legal digital music distribution... Read more...

The rise and fall of napster

Mon, 21 Apr 2003 10:26:23 +0000

very interesting article... "Instead of feeling relieved, Napster Inc. chief executive officer Eileen Richardson was pacing the halls with worry. San Francisco's Hummer Winblad Venture Partners had committed to invest $13 million for... Read more...