Company Information

Napster and Ericsson Launch Mobile Music Service for UK’s Leading Wireless Carrier -- O2 UK

LOS ANGELES – March 14, 2008 Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today announced the launch of the Napster Mobile music service with O2 UK, the leading wireless carrier serving the UK market with more than 18 million subscribers.
Co-developed by Napster and Ericsson, Napster Mobile is a premium music service offering an array of features and content. O2 UK customers will be able to search, browse, preview, purchase and play full-length tracks from Napster’s massive catalog of more than 5 million songs.  Napster Mobile also offers dual-delivery for simultaneous downloads to a subscriber’s PC and mobile phone, a unique feature that provides users the convenience of downloading songs directly to their phones with a high-fidelity copy of the song available to download on their PCs.
The service also features a recommendation tool and access to Napster’s expert programming on the handset, including featured artists and top tracks.
“We’re extremely excited to be partnering with O2 UK on the launch of Napster Mobile,” said Brad Duea, president of Napster.  “We look forward to delivering a superior mobile music experience to O2 UK’s customers, along with the largest mobile music catalog available.  It’s the perfect extension of Napster’s online service in the UK.”
 “This is another great example of our strategy of creating deep level partnerships with the best companies in the world to deliver compelling services to our customers,” said Sally Cowdry, Marketing Director, O2 UK. “Working with the right partners at O2 UK is crucial to our success and we have joined forces with a leader in this space to bring our customers a high quality, great value service with the widest choice of songs available on mobile.”

“We’re happy to see this second launch of Napster Mobile in the O2 group, following that of O2 Ireland in 2006. Music is an important area for telecom operators and we believe that O2 UK’s subscribers will find this a very attractive service. Napster Mobile combines the strength of Ericsson’s multimedia offering and hosted services capabilities. Combining the two enables us to provide a very attractive offering for operators to launch to their end-users.” said Jacqueline Hey, Managing Director, Ericsson UK.
Ged Doherty, Chairman, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT UK and Ireland, added, “Napster pioneered subscription services in the online world.  We are delighted to support them as they move into the mobile space with O2 – another brand making a considerable impact on the music landscape.”

Ericsson will host, integrate and manage the around-the-clock-operations of the service for O2 UK under a managed service agreement.

 

About Ericsson's Managed Services offering
Ericsson has the telecom industry's most comprehensive managed services offering. It ranges from designing, building, operating and managing day-to-day operations of a customer's network, including end-user services and business support systems, to hosting service applications and content, as well as providing network coverage and capacity on demand. As the undisputed leader in managed services, Ericsson has officially announced more than 100 contracts for managed services with operators worldwide since 2002. In all current managed services contracts, excluding hosting, Ericsson is managing networks that together serve more than 185 million subscribers worldwide.

 

About Napster
Napster, the pioneer of digital music, offers the ultimate in interactive music experiences, creating better ways to discover, share, acquire and enjoy music – anytime, anywhere. The company’s offerings include “Napster” (www.Napster.com) – the most popular, on-demand music subscription service in the world; “Freenapster” (www.freenapster.com), a unique Web experience offering free, on-demand music legally in the U.S.; and “Napster Mobile,” one of the industry’s fastest growing mobile music platforms, providing the premier mobile music experience for customers in ten global markets. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Napster's services are available in markets across North America, Europe and Japan.

 

Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release, in particular matters related to Napster’s relationship with Ericsson and wireless carriers and compatibility with mobile phones, are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties such as our limited operating history; failure to develop new products and services; flaws inherent in our products or services; decreased demand for our products and services; failure of our products to interoperate with the hardware products of our customers; the adoption of mobile platforms as a method of digital music purchase, including the rate of adoption of music-enabled mobile phones compatible with the Company’s service offerings; intense and varied competition; failure to maintain relationships with strategic partners and content providers; and general economic conditions; that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Additional information on these and other factors are contained in Napster's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as filed with the SEC onNovember 1, 2007, copies of which are available at the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. Napster assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this press release.

Copyright © 2003-2008 Napster, LLC. Napster and the Napster logo are registered trademarks of Napster, LLC in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Investor Contact
Alex Wellins    
The Blueshirt Group, for Napster
(415) 217-7722         
alex@blueshirtgroup.com

Media Contact
Jeff Fox
The Blueshirt Group, for Napster
(415) 828-8298
jeff@blueshirtgroup.com