Napster To Go subscription service launches in $30 million ad campaign

Following a pilot launch last fall, Napster LLC kicked off its digital music portable subscription service, Napster To Go, last week in a $30 million ad campaign including a Super Bowl ad and alliances with Dell Inc. and other makers of MP3 media players.

Napster, which recently changed its corporate name from Roxio Inc., is positioning Napster to Go as a direct competitor to the Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes portable digital music service. ITunes requires customers to pay 99 cents per song for downloads to Apple’s popular iPod portable media player, which several online retailers have said was one of the hottest items in 2004 holiday shopping season. Apple notes that its customers are buying songs through iTunes at the rate of 1.5 million a day, with more than 250 million songs downloaded since iTunes launched in April 2003.

But Napster To Go lets subscribers download an unlimited number of songs from Napster’s catalog of more than 1 million digital soundtracks for a monthly fee of $14.95. "This is what consumers want and Napster is once again proud to lead the industry by being the first in the world to offer this revolutionary new way to enjoy music," said Chris Gorog, chairman and CEO.

Beginning this week, Napster made Napster to Go compatible with MP3 players from several manufacturers including Creative, iRiver America, Samsung and Gateway.