Napster Becomes Subscription Provider for AOL Music

By Johanne Torres

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

AOL (News - Alert) and Napster have signed an agreement in which Napster becomes the exclusive music subscription provider integrated into AOL Music, replacing AOL Music Now.

 

The move will cause AOL to swap approximately 350,000 paid subscribers of its Music Now to Napster’s digital music subscription service, if they choose to stick around for the move. As part of the agreement, AOL will promote Napster with links to its service throughout AOL's free music site, AOL Music.

 

Music Now customers will be able to use their current member ID and password to access the Napster subscription service when they are switched over. The companies also vowed to securely transfer all of the customers’ billing information directly to Napster.

 

Napster will also re-create migrating customers’ existing personal Music Now music libraries, including any original, saved playlists. Napster promised to keep Music Now's current pricing tiers for migrating subscribers and transfer any pre-paid track credits they have in their current accounts.

 

AOL and Napster expect to complete the service migration within the next 60 days.

 

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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit her columnist page.