* Napster offers free trial; MP3.com waits for resurrection
As Napster attempts to rise from the ashes fellow music site MP3.com is being shut down by its new owner Cnet Networks.
Napster’s new owner Roxio relaunched the once king of the music download networks as the subscription-based Napster 2.0 service. Now Napster is attempting to lure back users by offering a free three-day trial period through December. Napster and Roxio are offering users three day of unlimited listening of its online music catalog of more than 500,000 tracks along with access to 40 on-demand radio stations.
However, the free installation of Napster 2.0 is only available to consumers in the U.S. using Windows XP or Windows 2000, Napster officials said.
As an added incentive to sign up for the service, the company is also offering five free tracks that can be burned to CD or transferred to one of 40 compatible portable music devices for those who subscribe to the service for $9.95 per month after their free trial ends.
Meanwhile, MP3.com was put in sleep mode last Tuesday as new owner Cnet Networks prepares for its relaunch in January as music.download.com. A notice on the MP3.com site says music.download.com “will offer artists free file hosting and a presence on the Web, and will give music fans free access to a universe of downloadable songs.”
MP3.com was founded in 1997 and became the home for emerging talent, boasting music from 250,000 artists. It was acquired last month by Cnet, which agreed to shut down the service on Dec. 2 while the company prepares to relaunch the site with new services and features.
