Napster Launches New Mobile Music Channels through NTT DoCoMo
Posted by geoffwhiting on December 8, 2007
Napster enlarged its partnership with NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s leading wireless carrier, to provide the music content for a new mobile music feature available to NTT DoCoMo customers. NTT DoCoMo offers customers a Music & Video Channel that provides access to video and music programs. Starting on December 1, these customers now have the chance to subscribe to a Napster-Tower Records music channel. This channel will showcase two weekly programs, each with between eight and 10 complete tracks that users may listen to up to three times a week.
Napster Japan launched the first mobile music subscription service in Japan last November on DoCoMo’s iMode platform. In July of this year, NTT DoCoMo launched Napster’s unlimited over-the-air (OTA) music subscription service and made it available across the complete line of DoCoMo 904i handsets.
Napster HITS is a weekly showcase of the latest releases and most popular songs. Tower Records Must-Hear Recommendations is a program geared towards genre playlists and older hits. Each channel comes complete with links to Napster Mobile, Napster’s ringtone store and its full-track à la carte download store. “This new offering allows music lovers a new way to enjoy Napster,” said Napster president Brad Duea. “We are proud to offer NTT DoCoMo customers the best way to discover and access the latest hits and popular tracks through their mobile phones outside of Napster’s mobile subscription service.”
Twenty-two of NTT DoCoMo’s handset models can access these new programs. The Napster-Tower Records channel and the Music & Video Channel service each cost 315 yen ($2.90) per month.
Napster is slowly cornering the global market when it comes to mobile music providers. Just last month, the Napster Mobile service began allowing AT&T wireless customers to search, preview, purchase and download over five million songs. Customers can download five tracks a month with the Napster Mobile Five-Track Pack option for a discounted price of $7.49 ($1.50 per song) or purchase songs à la carte for $1.99 each. AT&T teamed with Napster To Go earlier in March to give its mobile, home phone and triple-play subscribers free access to the Napster music library for a year.
Napster CEO Chris Gorog previously made a statement that mobile phones are the way forward for the company, and it seems like since it first teamed up with SunCom Wireless back in 2006, it never looked back.
