Napster Brings Music Service to Japan

While it is struggling to retain subscribers in the United States and even considering a sale of the company, Napster on Tuesday launched its subscription music store in Japan, following through on a promise made last year - albeit six months late.

Napster's Japanese store is actually a joint venture with Tower Records Japan, and features two million tracks including local artists. The company hopes Tower's reach in the country, where it is the largest music retailer, will help it compete with Apple's iTunes, which has been in Japan for over a year and has seen modest success.

Napster is again banking on its all-you-can-eat subscription model to set it apart. The company claims it is the first such music subscription service to debut in Japan, which is partially true. Yahoo rolled out a test of Yahoo! Music Unlimited in Japan last year with 100,000 tracks, but the service now says it is available in the United States and Canada only.

"Our joint venture with Tower Records Japan, the nation's largest and most successful music retailer, has enabled us to deliver a product with a deep focus on local tastes and programming that also happens to offer the largest digital music catalog available in the market," remarked Napster CEO Chris Gorog.

The basic Napster subscription for listening to songs on up to three PCs will cost 1,280 yen, or $10.99 USD per month. Napster To Go, which enables customers to transfer songs to portable devices, runs 1,980 yen, or $16.99 USD per month. Like iTunes, tracks can also be purchased a la carte for 150 to 300 yen each.

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile phone carrier, plans to support Napster To Go in its future models. The company's F902is handset will support the service initially. Such a capability could give Napster an advantage over iTunes in Japan, where millions of consumers already use their mobile phones for listening to music - something that has yet to catch on in the United States.