Napster Inc.’s Napster.com continues to report strong growth as it solidifies its return to the digital music market, with 270,000 paid subscribers as of the end of 2004, it reported today.
Napster’s number of paid subscribers rose 50% in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, to 270,000 from 180,000, Napster said. The current total includes 44,000 paid subscribers participating in university programs.
"These results, combined with industry analysts' projections, continue to support our belief that the future of digital music is subscription services,” said chairman and CEO Chris Gorog. “We expect to continue to drive very substantial subscriber growth in 2005 starting with the upcoming consumer launch and marketing campaign for 'Napster To Go', the world's first portable music subscription service."
Apple Inc., meanwhile, reported yesterday that it shipped 4.58 million iPod digital music players during its first fiscal 2005 quarter ended Dec. 25, a rise of 525% in the number of iPods shipped in the year-ago quarter.
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