Napster revenues see uptick
According to this PR Newswire press release from Napster:
Napster (Nasdaq: NAPS - News), the biggest brand in digital music, today raised guidance for its fourth fiscal quarter ending March 31, 2005. Napster now expects to report revenues of approximately $15 million for the fourth quarter, an increase from its prior projection of $14 million.
"We are raising our guidance based on robust growth in our subscription service," said Chris Gorog, Napster's Chairman and CEO. "Since the launch of Napster To Go, we have experienced exceptional demand for all aspects of our business. Our new marketing campaign is already delivering strong returns by generating unprecedented interest in both our regular and portable music subscription offerings. A positive reception to compatible MP3 players from iriver, Creative and Dell is also fueling demand. For example, within hours of launching a Napster To Go promotion with iriver, we sold out of the 'bundles' and added a significant number of new, year-long subscribers. We are confident that interest in our portable subscription service will further increase as consumers learn that for about the price of one CD per month, they have unlimited ability to fill and refill their MP3 players with their choice of more than one million songs."
One interesting article that I briefly saw yesterday talked about how some of the subscribers to some of these music services may be in for a surprise when they find that they can no longer access the music they thought they'd "bought" if they every cancel their subscription. Not sure if that includes Napster since I haven't really looked into its music offerings since we're an iTunes household!