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VIRGIN RADIO AND NAPSTER ANNOUNCE THE UK’S FIRST ONLINE MUSIC CHART ON NATIONAL RADIO
Napster Online Music Chart debuts on Virgin Radio on Sunday August 29 between 19:00 and 20:00 LONDON - (August 19, 2004) - Napster UK, Ltd., a subsidiary of Roxio, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROXI), is to launch the UK’s very first online music chart on national radio. Starting on August 29 and then every Sunday between 19:00 and 20:00, the UK’s biggest rock and pop station - Virgin Radio - will countdown and broadcast the most popular Top 20 tracks taken each week from Napster’s extensive catalogue of over 750,000 songs. The Napster Online Music Chart will reflect the different ways music fans enjoy their favourite tracks online by taking into account full-length streams, subscription downloads, and permanent downloads. Virgin Radio reaches over 2.6 million listeners every week across its 105.8FM and 1215AM frequencies and website www.virginradio.co.uk, which carries live streams of all its shows. Alongside the new Napster Online Music Chart, Virgin Radio and Napster will bring listeners on air and online a series of competitions and promotions including the chance to win a year’s subscription to Napster and follow in the footsteps of The Cure frontman Robert Smith as Napster guest programming director [tbd - in discussions with Virgin]. "As well as hitting our core demographic and having millions of listeners, Virgin Radio enjoys over 1 million unique online visitors a month, making it an ideal brand partner for Napster," said Leanne Sharman, Napster vice-president and UK general manager. "Partnerships are key to our approach and Virgin Radio shares the same brand values, target audience and commitment to innovation as Napster." "We are delighted to team up with Napster to launch UK’s first online music chart," said John Pearson, CEO of Virgin Radio. "Equally as important as being the first chart of its kind in the UK is the fact that the Napster Online Music Chart is not just based on permanent downloads - it also registers full-length streams and subscription downloads - making it the UK’s most comprehensive online music data chart." The Napster Online Music Chart is the latest in a growing line of market firsts for Napster in the UK:
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 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.
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Napster contact: Adam Howorth Communications Director Tel: +44 (0) 207 1017281 adam.howorth@napster.co.uk © 2004 Napster, LLC. All rights reserved. Napster, Napster Light, Roxio and the Roxio tagline are all trademarks of Roxio, Inc. or Napster, LLC and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. |
