Napster 'gives away' Mp3 players

Napster today offered a free Mp3 player to new subscribers to its music download service as Apple prepared to launch the next generation of its iPod music player.

Apple has been facing competition on more than one front in the music-download market it kickstarted with the original iPod. There are multimedia players that screen videos and recorded TV as well as play audio, and there are singing phones that pack their own music players.

And there are problems on the political front, particularly in Europe, where there are questions about the way iPod users are locked into buying music from Apple.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is widely expected to launch an iPod video player tomorrow, and possibly a phone with a music player.

Napster, a brand that which began life as a file-sharing system, is one of many companies trying to get a slice or the audio download market. Subscribers to its Napster-to-Go (NTG) service pay £14.99 a month for the right to fill and refill their Mp3 player with a choice of two million album tracks.

From Thursday (14 September) anyone taking out a three-month NTG subscription will receive a free 512MB flash device that can store up to 240 tracks.

Napster UK general manager Leanne Sharman said: “We see a parallel in the UK between the mobile phone industry and the digital music business. The mobile industry is more mature than ours but it began as a pay-as-you-go business reliant on handset sales.

"Now it’s subscription that drives the business and allows the network carriers to give away new phones. This is the model for the future of the digital music industry where content is king and Mp3 players are disposable."