Napster reopens as subscription site

Music file swapping website Napster has launched a new paid-for service running as a trial to 20,000 users picked from the three million who volunteered to test it. The launch date for the full service is not set, but is expected by the end of March.

When officially launched, the new service is expected to charge subscribers $5 to $10 per month for up to 50 music downloads, chief executive Konrad Hilbers told reporters.

In the meantime the test will run over the next six to eight weeks with the goal of supporting between 5,000 and 10,000 simultaneous users.

The trial service lacks major record label content, instead offering 110,000 songs from a handful of independent labels. Napster hopes to sign up major labels at a later date.

Once the service is officially running, users will be able to transfer music and store it on a computer but will not be able to share it with other users, as they could with the original Napster, unless the trade is permitted by the new security technology being used.

Before it shut down in July, Napster offered a huge range of major label music content that users could share for no charge, but it came under pressure from the recording industry over breach of copyright.