Napster and Ericsson team up for mobile music store

Napster and Ericsson made a deal to deliver mobile operators the world's first complete integrated digital music service. The service will be Napster-branded and will support coordinated wireless and PC downloading of digital music. Users will be able to subscribe and download as many songs as they want, or pay per song.

Napster's brand, catalogue, label relationships, programming, PC and portable offerings will be combined with Ericsson's operator relationships, wireless development, integration, hosting, deployment, support and IPX charging systems.

The mobile service will also allow cell phone operators to sell ring-tones, master tones, images, wallpaper and video content. The service will work on phones from major manufacturers that support digital rights management (DRM) protected content.

The service will go live in Europe within 12 months and will be offered initially to operators in selected markets in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America.

Source: VNU Net