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AT&T To Offer Napster Music Downloads
AT&T Inc. is making Napster Inc.'s entire music catalog
of more than 5 million songs available for wireless download
starting early next month.
According to AP report, the service will expand the company's
over-the-air download offerings beyond the independent music
it offered through eMusic.com and allow it to compete with
offerings from rivals Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp.
At $1.99 a song, or $7.49 for five songs, it's comparable
to Verizon's pricing, but far off-kilter from Sprint's .99
a track. Issues with the price point are only compounded by
computer based digital music stores like iTunes and Amazon
distributing DRM-free tracks at .99. There is a little more
work involved with those solutions since they don't provide
the convenience of over-the-air downloads (yet), but in terms
of price and selection they may prove to be strong contenders.
With this announcement, AT&T is reinforcing the company's
commitment to delivering anytime, anywhere access to content.
In addition, AT&T will be the only national provider to
enable customers to purchase full-track songs over the air
from both Napster and eMusic, the world's largest retailer
of independent music.
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