Napster Inc. keeps mining the wireless market for new download music customers, including satellite radio. In fact, thanks to a new marketing and business relationship Napster is launching with XM Satellite Radio, Napster will begin offering an integrated music download service to XM’s more than 4 million subscribers before the end of the year.
Specifically, the new co-branded XM + Napster service will be jointly marketed by XM and Napster and launched in the fourth quarter when XM introduces its newest technology, which includes the latest XM/MP3 players, and gives XM subscribers the ability to listen to XM's 150-plus channels of live programming on the player, store songs in the player's memory and mark the songs they like for future reference or online purchase.
When the XM/MP3 player is connected to a personal computer, the XM + Napster service will match the marked XM song titles with Napster's music catalog, which are available for purchase.
"This product merges the best of online and satellite music into one integrated experience," says Napster president Chris Gorog.
The deal in essence makes Napster, which ranks No. 269 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, the exclusive digital music provider to XM and gives Napster a marketing presence in the growing satellite radio market, says a Napster spokesman. “The satellite radio and music download markets share many of the same customer demographics,” the spokesman says. “They are also used to a subscription business model.”
Napster and XM Satellite Radio will jointly market their new service on Napster.com and XM Radio.com later in the fall and closer to the launch, the spokesman says. Napster also plans on marketing the XM + Napster service with various chain retailers, possibly including Best Buy Co., the spokesman says.
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