 |
|
      
|
|
THE SUN AND NAPSTER ANNOUNCE FIRST EVER ONLINE MUSIC PROMOTION IN A UK NATIONAL DAILY NEWSPAPER
First in a series of major prize giveaways begins today in The Sun and Sun online LONDON - (July 22, 2004) - Napster UK, Ltd., a subsidiary of Roxio, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROXI), is to run a series of major consumer promotions in conjunction with The Sun, the UK’s biggest selling national daily newspaper (a News Group Newspapers Limited property). On Saturday, and for eight Saturdays throughout the summer, The Sun will offer its 10 million daily readers the opportunity to download any tracks for free from Napster’s library of over 750,000 songs. The partnership between The Sun and Napster begins today (Thursday) with a £50,000 music related prize giveaway in the paper. Top prize in today’s competition, is the chance to win a trip to Napster’s Melrose Avenue headquarters in Los Angeles to attend a live, private recording session and receive a platinum disc from a major artist. Other prizes include over 200 free subscriptions to Napster’s online music service featuring over 750,000 tracks; Samsung’s highly anticipated Napster branded YH920 MP3 players; Rio Chiba MP3 players; free subscriptions to ntl’s broadband and Broadband Plus services; and packs of Roxio’s award winning Creator 7 multimedia software. The competition will be followed throughout the rest of the summer by a series of innovative major music giveaways from Napster in The Sun, with accompanying promotion on The Sun’s website, www.thesun.co.uk. Napster and The Sun set yet another new digital mark as this is the first time a national daily newspaper in the UK has ever run a campaign on this scale with an online music company. "This is a significant partnership for Napster," said Brad Duea,, president of Napster. "The Sun has tremendous brand identity and reach throughout the UK and has proven itself time and again as a major influencer of public opinion. Napster was the first online music service to partner with a major UK consumer electronics retailer - the Dixons Group - and now we’re the first in our industry to join forces with a daily national paper. We are very pleased to see another world class organisation and brand embrace Napster through a mutually beneficial partnership." "The Sun has always made its name by being first to market, whether it be breaking news scoops, editorial developments or the biggest, best and most exciting reader promotions, said Sean Mahon, head of marketing strategy, News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun. "We are always looking to innovate and deliver value and with the recent rise in legitimate online music services we felt the time is right to offer readers, especially younger ones a market leading and exciting, free music download promotion. Instead of us providing a free CD with pre-selected tracks, we are offering readers the opportunity to create their own compilation by downloading free tracks throughout the summer. "We chose Napster because of their credibility and brand image which conveys irreverence, fun and youthfulness, all similar values to The Sun brand itself," continued Mahon. "We also feel that Napster’s service offers our readers fantastic value through access to over three-quarters of a million songs. From a marketing point of view this promotion not only ticks many of the right brand boxes but will also deliver sales contribution as both offline and online Sun consumers will be buying the newspaper on a regular basis to take advantage of the promotion." Danny Rogers, Sun online marketing manager, added: "When you add in a further 4.5 million unique users who visit www.thesun.co.uk on a monthly basis, we can safely say that this is the biggest free music download promotion ever run in the UK." Napster vice-president and UK general manager, Leanne Sharman, added: "Napster is the world’s biggest name in online music and by combining our marketing resources with the UK’s favourite newspaper we now have a hugely efficient mechanism for maintaining and extending our message before a national audience." Napster 2.0 Launched in the UK on May 20, Napster offers access to over three quarters of a million tracks and a huge range of value-added community features at a cost to subscribers of £9.95 a month. Alongside the subscription service, Napster Light offers music fans an a la carte download store. After downloading the free Napster jukebox at www.napster.co.uk, Napster subscribers can listen to the world’s largest digital music catalogue on demand, and download any track they choose onto the hard drives of up to three PCs and listen offline - to save bandwidth while they surf, or for convenience when on the go. Ten interactive advert-free Napster radio stations allow listeners to see which song is coming next, skip forward or jump back - with favourites easily added to their Napster library with one click. Napster can even build subscribers their own custom radio station on the fly simply on the basis of selecting three songs. Napster’s rich community features allow subscribers to browse each others’ play lists and even share songs among other Napster users. Subscribers can also listen to and save full-length songs taken from the past 10 years of Official Charts Company UK charts, and can purchase and burn tracks for as little as £0.88 per song when they buy multiple tracks. If UK music fans elect not to become a subscriber, by downloading Napster for free at www.napster.co.uk, they can still purchase tracks any time they want for £1.09 and albums for £9.95 after listening to free 30-second samples of the Napster UK library. At no cost, Napster Light users can organise their entire music collection in Napster by using the ripping software in the Napster jukebox to take tracks from CDs they already own to play on Napster, import MP3s into their Napster Library, or transfer tracks they’ve bought to a wide range of portable devices. Napster Light also offers consumers free access to Fuzz, Napster’s online magazine; their own Napster Inbox; and the chance to sample the OCC UK charts. About The Sun The Sun is the best known and biggest selling UK daily newspaper. Today The Sun sells over 3.3 million copies a day and is read by over 9 million people everyday. The key to its success has been its ability to capture and shape the mood of the nation. The Sun is famous for its cheeky and challenging front pages that are now part of British folklore. Be it serious news or scandalous rumour, The Sun seeks out and delivers the truth in a hard hitting and entertaining way. It is passionate about life in Britain! The Sun is at the heart of the British public and acts to unite people, be it through English football prayer mats or its emotive campaigns that champion its readers' rights. The Sun reaches a vast readership, appealing to young adults, families, workers and shoppers with a vast disposable income. The Sun also commands a strong loyal and solus readership. The Sun reaches almost 4 million under 35’s, more than any other newspaper. About Napster Napster® is the world's most recognized brand in online music. Napster has content agreements with the five major record labels, as well as hundreds of independents. Napster delivers access to the largest catalogue of online music with over 750,000 tracks spanning all genres and artists from Eminem to Miles Davis. Napster is a division of Roxio, Inc., (Nasdaq: ROXI), the Digital Media Company, provider of the best-selling digital media software in the world. Napster is headquartered in Los Angeles with additional offices in London, New York, San Diego and Toronto.
* * *
Napster contact: Adam Howorth Communications Director Tel: +44 (0) 207 1017281 adam.howorth@napster.co.uk |
