Day before yesterday Napster presented a gloomy picture of its online music service and reported its subscribers have fallen by 7 percent. The fall in subscription is attributed to Napster’s focus in it the promotion of its new free website. Napster CEO Chris Gorog said speaking in an online conference that the present scenario offers very little room for maneuvering that might result in the sale of the company.
Speaking to analysts on a conference call, Chris Gorog said;
We do not have our heads in the sand regarding an M&A (merger and acquisition) transaction. We continue to receive a lot of interest in the company. We will always carefully weigh any valuation alternative against the opportunity and risk associated with continuing as a stand-alone company.
Napster’s total paid subscribers by June end was 512,000, which included some 4,000 university-paid subscriptions. The number of paid subscribers other than that of university-paid subscription grew at the rate of 26 percent a year.
The popular mp3-swapping site was forced to shut down in July 2001 just within two years of coming into existence after a series of legal battles with music companies for copyright infringement. It was bought by Roxio and came up again after almost two years in a new avatar that offered music downloads on subscription.
Things for Napster didn’t remain the same again after 2001 when it was put off business by the law. I wonder if there is any chance for Napster to gain the popularity that it enjoyed in 1999 through 2001.
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