The two companies will work together to migrate approximately 350,000 paid subscribers of the Music Now service to Napster’s award-winning digital music subscription service. Additionally, AOL will promote Napster with links to the Napster service throughout AOL’s free music site, AOL Music (http://www.aolmusic.com/), one of the top music destinations on the Web.
Music Now customers are being notified that their music accounts will be migrated to Napster unless they opt out. In order to enjoy uninterrupted service, Music Now customers will be able to use their current member ID and password to access the Napster subscription service, and their billing information will be securely transferred directly to Napster. In addition, Napster will re-create migrating customers’ existing personal Music Now music libraries, including any original playlists they have created and saved. Napster also will retain Music Now’s current pricing tiers for migrating subscribers and transfer any pre-paid track credits they have in their accounts.
“We are pleased to provide our subscribers the opportunity to seamlessly transition to Napster, which will become the only music subscription service integrated into AOL Music,” said Mike Rich, Vice President, AOL Entertainment. “Music Now subscribers can look forward to enjoying a world-class music experience from Napster.”
“Napster’s new relationship with AOL provides us with an excellent opportunity to aggressively grow subscribers through deep integration with one of the most visited music destinations on the Web,” said Chris Gorog, Napster’s chairman and CEO. “This transaction firmly positions Napster to be the unequivocal global leader in the premium music subscription sector and the number two overall in digital music revenue. We greatly look forward to serving all of the current AOL Music Now subscribers by providing them with the best possible unlimited music experience from Napster.”
