Good morning. It is a pleasure and honor to address you today about my thoughts on digital music and also to present for the first time some new things we've been working on at Napster.

So - let's jump in.

What is the most important event that has happened to the music business in its 100 year history? What single event transformed this industry overnight since the invention of the gramophone? We all know it. We all feel it in our bones. It is undeniable. Shawn Fanning's debut of Napster in 1999.

How is it conceivable that this, then 17-year-old, transformed the entire entertainment industry in an instant? It is because the original Napster wasn't about a new format or a new "business model," and although technology enabled Napster, it wasn't about technology. What it was about was fundamentally and dramatically enhancing the way people enjoy music.

Let's think about that for a moment. Let's take off the various business hats each of us brought to this discussion today. The hat of the artist rep, the hat of the label exec, the hat of the digital music provider - and look at it from the perspective of who we all really are- music fans.

Now, with industry hats firmly placed on the floor, let's recall the experience - as a music fan - of going into Tower Records and buying an album or CD for $10 or $20 dollars and recall the experience of running home and maybe being a little disappointed with the B-sides - and C-sides, and D-sides - and maybe even feeling a little ripped off... And we can all relate to the experience of simply not finding what we were looking for - or craving a much broader selection.

Now, as music fans - imagine having all the power - selecting anything you want - however you want it. Imagine having unlimited access, anytime, anywhere - to all music. And imagine not having to make a buying decision every time you wanted to simply listen to a track or put some music on your MP3 player.

As music fans - which would you prefer? Needless to say, it is absolutely no contest. As music fans, you want - you will demand, and you will get one way or another - unlimited, access - anytime, anywhere.

My point is this. Unlimited access, on demand is the new music model and has been since 1999. And as we all know too well the progress toward adapting and delivering to music fans what they clearly told us they want, in a legal environment, has been slow and painful. But - remember the charming phrase, "The customer is always right." Well, in the 21st century and internet age, add to that- and he will always get what he wants. The power of the internet to democratize everything will insure that.

So, while the industry has been fighting over DRM, platform interoperability and building models unresponsive to what consumers have asked for, music fans have continued to enjoy unlimited access. Like I said - they will get it one way or another - in this case, through piracy, personal file swapping, cd duplication and the like.

So, where can we point to, to see progress toward honoring this insatiable demand of consumers for unlimited access? Digital music sales figures would suggest a'la carte downloads. But, may I submit to you that listening to 30-second clips and having to make a purchase decision track by track does not remotely emulate the unlimited access experience of the original Napster. And, consequently, the reality behind this "revolution," as far as the music industry is concerned, should be cause for alarm and concern.

I think the following set of facts is important to focus on. Apple has reported it has sold one billion a'la carte downloads and fifty million iPods. Even I can do that math. That's 20 legally purchased downloads during the lifetime of each device. 20 songs - roughly the cost of one album. And who can blame people? Would you spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to fill an MP3 player? Clearly not. And neither will customers. So, as you pull your iPod out of your conference bag today, ask yourself, "Is this good for me? Is the a'la carte download model addressing consumers' demand for unlimited access?" Hardly. In fact it is doing exactly the opposite. Where does the other music on iPods come from? Certainly not from rips of skyrocketing CD sales. And while clearly people are ripping from their own collections to fill their players, this does nothing to enhance their discovery of new music.

So quite obviously consumers are helping themselves to illegal unlimited access to discover new music because the industry has not provided a broadly understood, accessible, legal unlimited access alternative.

So if the a'la carte download model is not the savior of the music industry, what is? May I humbly submit - your old pal Napster and our stalwart competitors focused on building the subscription business. Since we launched the legal version of Napster in 2003 we have, in fact, been focused on just one thing- delivering a "legal version," if you will, of the original. That is, an offering that provides unlimited access and unlimited portability to MP3 players in an environment where artists and rights holders get paid. And while we have been yelled down by voices declaring "people don't want to rent music" and the like, people in fact are delighted to "rent" TV thru cable or "rent" movies thru Netflix, so why is music any different? Over half a million subscribers to Napster paying $10 or $15 per month don't think it's any different at all.

And what is "ownership" in a digital world anyway? What happens to these encrypted files we've purchased with routinely obsolete bit rates, when you up-grade computers or when music formats change? If you think ownership of digital music files has value - try selling them. The fact is- in a digital world, ownership is irrelevant - and instantaneous access to everything is what has value.

So you might say; Great Chris - so why haven't paid music subscriptions kept pace with a'la carte download sales? There are fundamentally two reasons:

The first is the comment I made about DRM and platform interoperability. The success of the iPod - a closed proprietary system - has not been the friend to unlimited access and paid subscription as it won't allow its' users to try it.

The good news is, for Napster, our subscription competitors and most importantly fans and the record industry - we believe this closed proprietary system will marginalize itself. In technology, if you don't play well with others, your day in the sun is limited, because the shared, cooperative technology ecosystem, supported by a massive community of global companies, always prevails. That ecosystem currently controls 97% of the PC marketplace. The closed proprietary system controls the other 3%. Well - the eco-system is now coming to digital music.

Over the next year or so, tens of millions of Windows Media Audio portable subscription enabled cell phones from major manufacturers such as Motorola, Nokia and many, many others will begin to flood the market around the globe. This phenomenon, together with the growing WMA MP3 player install base and more seamless interoperability of these devices with services, will dramatically increase the addressable market for the unlimited access portable subscription model. And once again - the consumer will ultimately get exactly what he wants - in this case; choice of hardware - choice of service - choice of price point - and most importantly - unlimited access - but now - in a legal environment.

The second big issue for subscription services has been how to successfully communicate how unlimited access works - in a legal, digital rights managed, environment. The one thing we know is when music fans use top class subscription services - they love them. When you put a fan in front of Napster's premium subscription service for the first time, it's like watching a kid on Christmas morning. It is a revelation. It is a genuine "A-HA!" moment. It is giving them what they asked for in the first place.

So, with confidence that the WMA hardware ecosystem will now begin to significantly ramp, we ask ourselves at Napster, "How can we be more successful at getting millions of fans to have that "A-Ha!" moment - where they experience unlimited access legally? Is there a way we can remove more obstacles?"

Well - I am here to tell you, we think we've come up with something pretty interesting.

Since we re-launched Napster in 2003, we have been focused on just one thing- figuring out what we can offer that will create an experience that most-closely emulates the experience of using the original Napster, but in a legal environment. Thanks to, what we believe is some very smart and forward-looking cooperation from the record labels; we have created a new web-based unlimited access experience at Napster.com which, we think is the closest we- or anyone else- have ever come.

You are the first group to see the next legal evolution of unlimited access. Starting today, anyone can simply log on to Napster.com and, with no credit card - no commitment - no payment whatsoever and no software download, listen directly from the web to over 2 million major-label and indie tracks on-demand - any single track up to 5 times with no monthly restrictions. Or, as we like to think about it- the least restrictive, on-demand, unlimited access music experience in the legal world. The new napster.com addresses the two essential requirements of a cutting edge legal music service. 1) It delivers unlimited access and 2) it compensates artists, publishers, and labels, in this case, through participation in advertising revenue generated from the site and by sharing in paid subscription revenue earned from users who upgrade to a more feature rich experience - including unlimited portability to MP3 players.

We believe this new web-based product will offer an intelligent balance of generating new excitement for legal digital music by offering a compelling, free discovery experience, and simultaneously serve as the best possible introduction to the value of our paid service.

So, allow me to briefly explain just what we've built.

Visitors to the free music experience at Napster.com can search for and listen to full-length tracks on demand - to any song - any artist - any album - or listen to a robust collection of playlists crossing all genres. So if you want to log on today and listen to the new Pearl Jam album - enjoy! The napster.com home page is also rich with new releases, recommendations, exclusive live music and timely features like, this week, some great coverage of Coachella.

In addition to this very compelling free music offering, we have also created two new community features. The first - a public music Archive we call the Narchive. The Narchive, which will debut in Beta shortly, is a place on the web where you can contribute to the people's history of music and write reviews, tell stories, share photos and graphics and -- create free music links to bring all of your Narchive entries to life. Napster has seeded this free form environment with original biographical information, discographies and exclusive photography, but the key to Narchive will be the user creations that document "the people's" music experiences and opinions. So, for example, when you check out Neil Young's proactive new album on Napster tomorrow - you might be inspired to write your own review - or share your first experience seeing him live. We also hope the Narchive becomes a great place to talk to fans about new breaking artists by posting profiles, providing tour information and providing links to new tracks.

We loved the idea of bringing web content to life with free music links in a legal environment so much we decided to completely unleash it from Napster - so we created what we believe is a breakthrough new feature we call Napsterlinks. NapsterLinks enables anyone to add free Napster music links to e-mails, instant messages, blogs and websites and bring their communication to life with music and share it across the web. I am personally very excited about NapsterLinks. I love reading about music - as we all do - but I've always been frustrated I can't simultaneously hear the music I'm reading about. So now - when bloggers are talking up the next Arctic Monkeys - they can embed the new band's songs directly in their blogs so their readers can simultaneously listen to them. NapsterLinks will finally deliver this integrated experience on the web - legally.

So there you have it - a brief overview of our latest efforts to advance unlimited access.

We are proud that Napster.com is an open platform and is available not only to PC users, but also to MAC and Linux users and can be accessed thru virtually any internet browser. The ecosystem is welcome!

Well, I think that's it. I greatly appreciate your attention. I hope my remarks gave you some food for thought. We believe the most important thing we, all of us in the industry, can do is to facilitate unlimited access in a legal environment. It is crystal clear what our customer wants, and it has been since 1999 - let's work closely together, aggressively and passionately - and give it to them!