Revamped Napster Set To Launch Early Next YearRevamped Napster Set To Launch Early Next Year

The commercial version of Napster is taking shape, but its launch has been delayed yet again. The service, which received an infusion of capital last week from partner Bertelsmann AG, was originally slated for a late-summer launch. That was pushed back to later this year, and it's now been rescheduled for early next year, Napster CEO Konrad Hilbers said at the opening of the Webnoize 2001 conference in Los Angeles last week.

Some details about the new Napster are surfacing, but price remains a mystery. Hilbers joked that he'd like to provide pricing details "for the mere fact that people would stop asking me." Shawn Fanning, the whiz-kid founder of the once-popular file-sharing community, was recently named chief technology officer and continues to drive Napster's technology development. Napster is considering support for mobile devices, but it's focused on PCs for now, Hilbers says.

He also dismisses the notion that the service will include a significant B-to-B technology play. Napster last week licensed its technology to BeMusic, Bertelsmann E-Commerce Group's fledgling Internet music service. It will be used largely to support its successful BMG Music Club. But Napster's technology isn't for sale outside Bertelsmann. "We aren't a business-to-business company," Hilbers says.

Napster is in discussions with all the major music labels, and Hilbers says he's confident that licensing deals will result, letting Napster offer the full complement of mainstream music thought to be the key to any successful online music-subscription service. Napster has the technology in place to deliver major-label content in a way that rewards copyright owners appropriately, Hilbers says, but he wouldn't offer specifics. He also cautions that the music industry should be patient in establishing expectations for digital services. Digital delivery, he says, represents an incremental revenue stream that won't replace the $15 billion retail channel anytime soon.