The digital music service company Napster Inc has opened world’s biggest MP3 download store with more than 6 million songs.
With the new facility Napster can now openely challenge Apple Inc’s iTunes store’s monopoli in this sector. The new Web-based music store will have digital songs from all major music labels. This is introduced in such a way that MP3-format songs are compatible with the vast majority of digital media devices and mobile phones including Apple’s popular iPod as well as its iPhone.
Napster had been focussing on selling all-you-can-eat monthly streaming music subscription packages till now. But it could not win the customer heart who want to transfer songs to portable devices.
It is believed that the new Napster service would help Napster to challenge Apple’s dominance in digital music by offering fans more songs without copy protection or digital rights management (DRM). Most of the six million songs on the iTunes Music store are available with Fairplay DRM, which prevents the songs from being played on most portable players other than the iPod.
Napster is the latest music retailer to switch to the unrestricted file format, which makes its music tracks compatible with virtually any music player or other device.
According to Chris Gorog, the Napster chairman and chief executive.the new service is the beginning of a level playing field, which is essential for Napster, but also for the health of the digital music business in general. Tracks downloaded as part of Napster’s subscription service will continue to have copyright restrictions. For much of the decade, major record labels refused to license their music for downloading as MP3s. But steep declines in CD sales and the growing dominance of Apple’s iPod and its iTunes Music Store led the labels to soften that stance last year to remain competitive.
Major labels in particular had previously been reluctant to allow online retailers to sell their songs without protection as a way to avoid piracy. As the industry outlook gets tougher more executives are willing to experiment or take a risk. Amazon.com is the only other retailer offering MP3 downloads from all the major record labels.
Most songs on the service will be available for 99 cents each and $9.95 an album.
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