Napster to Power AOL Music Subscription Service

AOL said Friday that it will be dropping Music Now in favor of Napster, which will power the company's subscription music service. The two companies said they will work together to migrate AOL Music Now's 350,000 subscribers.

The Dulles, Va. Based ISP is now alerting customers that they will be migrating their accounts unless they opt out. Libraries and track credits will automatically be transferred, and AOL Music Now users will be able to retain their old username and password.

In total, the migration is expected to take about two months, the companies said in a statement. At that time, Napster will become the only music service integrated into AOL Music.

"This transaction firmly positions Napster to be the unequivocal global leader in the premium music subscription sector and the number two overall in digital music revenue," Napster chairman and CEO Chris Gorog said in a statement.

MusicNow was acquired from Circuit City in November 2005. It replaced AOL's preexisting MusicNet@AOL offering.