Napster prepares to charge for music

The free music-sharing website Napster is preparing a monthly subscription system and new technologies that limit music quality and stop it being stored on to CDs ­ a move that is alienating millions of its users.

The California-based company said it will introduce the new system "this summer". But the visible reaction among the 70 million users of the fastest-growing internet system ever is clear: they reckon the move will finally end their access to millions of free high-quality songs over the Net. That, they say, will cause them to abandon Napster.

But Napster said the plan fitted its profile. "Napster is meant to be a promotional vehicle, not a replacement for CD sales," a Napster spokeswoman said.

That is not the view taken by record companies, who are suing the company for hundreds of millions of dollars alleging that it has enabled piracy.

Although Napster has a deal with the huge Bertelsmann group, which owns the BMG label, companies such as Sony, EMI and Universal would still like to crush it. After a court injunction in February won by those companies earlier this year, Napster has to stop people sharing millions of tracks by artists represented by the biggest record labels and publishers. That has led to a rapid fall in the number of users, as they were unable to find songs.

However, Hank Barry, Napster's chief executive, insisted that "a very large number of people continue to use Napster".

The move to a subscription, allied to limited music quality ­ "about as good as FM radio", said the spokeswoman ­ and a system requiring an extra subscription to save downloaded tracks on to CDs could be the final step pushing millions more Napster users towards finding other ways of swapping MP3 music files.

Napster launched a court defence accusing the record companies of antitrust and claiming that it was excepted from allegations of piracy by various wrinkles in copyright law. The case is still on appeal.

- INDEPENDENT