Napster Contact:
Dana M. Harris
Napster
310-281-5073
dana.harris@napster.com
Investor and Media Contacts:
Alex Wellins or Jennifer Jarman
The Blueshirt Group
415-217-7722
alex@blueshirtgroup.com;
jennifer@blueshirtgroup.com
NAPSTER ENDS FIRST FULL FISCAL YEAR WITH OVER 410,000 SUBSCRIBERS;
RAISES FOURTH QUARTER REVENUE GUIDANCE
LOS ANGELES, April 5, 2005 -- Napster, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAPS),
the biggest brand in digital music, announced today that its subscriber
base grew by 143,000 in the fourth quarter, raising Napster's subscriber
base to a total of over 410,000, including 56,000 university subscribers.
This represents a sequential quarterly increase in subscribers of over 53%
percent and continues Napster's rapid growth rate of its subscriber base
and its pioneering
Napster To Go portable subscription service, the first
of its kind in the world. Based on strong subscriber uptake and stronger
than anticipated sales of downloads to subscribers, Napster is raising its
fourth quarter revenue estimate to between $16.5 and $17.5 million.
"We believe Napster continues to be the fastest growing music subscription
service in the industry and we are very pleased with the excitement
demonstrated by consumers and the press over
Napster To Go," said Chris Gorog,
Napster's chairman and CEO. "Our innovative
Napster To Go marketing campaign has
lead to a very strong increase in consumer awareness as music fans are 'doing
the math' and discovering the incredible value and excitement of a Napster
subscription. We were also delighted to see that our new
Napster To Go subscribers
exhibited a strong appetite for purchasing pay-per-download music as well and are
therefore raising our sales guidance for the quarter."
In the weeks since its launch,
Napster To Go has received significant critical
acclaim in leading business and consumer media outlets including the Associated
Press, CNET, The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury News and USA Today and was
recently named Editors Choice and Product of the Month by PC Magazine. In addition,
prominent industry analysts have shown keen support of Napster's digital music
subscription model.
Quarterly Conference Call Information
Napster's management will host a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter and
fiscal 2005 results on May 11, 2005 at 2 PM PT. To participate on the call, analysts
and investors may dial 800-218-0713. The call will also be webcast from the investor
relations section of the Napster website at
www.napster.com.
About Napster
Napster, the biggest brand in digital music, is a subscription service that enables
fans to freely sample the world's largest and most diverse online collection of music
and move an unlimited amount of songs to compatible MP3 players. Napster
(
www.napster.com) members have
access to songs from all major labels and hundreds of independents and have more ways
to discover, share and acquire new music and old favorites with community features
like the ability to email tracks to friends and browse other members' collections.
Napster also offers Napster Light, a "lighter" version of the service for those who
just want to purchase songs and albums a la carte. Napster is currently available in
the United States, Canada and the U.K. and is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices
in San Jose, San Diego, New York and London.
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release, in
particular matters related to Napster's future revenue and the continued and future
success of
Napster To Go are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain
risks and uncertainties such as decreased demand for our products and services; flaws
inherent in our products or services; failure of our products to interoperate with the
hardware products of our customers, intense competition; failure to maintain
relationships with strategic partners and content providers, and general economic
conditions, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.
Additional information on these and other factors are contained in Napster's reports
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as filed with the SEC on February 9, 2005, copies of
which are available at the website maintained by the SEC at
http://www.sec.gov.
Napster assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this press
release.
* * *
Copyright © 2005 Napster, LLC All Rights Reserved. Napster, the Napster Kitty Logo,
Napster To Go and Napster Light are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Napster,
LLC in the United States and/or other countries.