Napster launches in UK amid media circus

Napster UK communications director Adam Howorth was ebullient today as he told anyone that could hear over the noise that all the national papers and TV teams were at his launch – Napster had finally come to the UK.

This is something that its established rivals were at pains to point out.

OD2 chief Charles Grimsdale said in a statement: "Since we launched, OD2 has taken the initiative to grow this market. We have the best retail partners, the most comprehensive range of artists – and the best deals."

To emphasise the best deals part, OD2 ran a spoiling half-price offer on its largest download sites such as Wanadoo, Tiscali, Coca-Cola, MSN and Virgin Megastores. The offer, starting this morning, will give you a £40 bundle of songs for £20.

The Wippit statement also concentrated on price. "We welcome Napster to the UK market, coz it just makes Wippit look even better. Wippit will continue to offer single downloads from 29p and our famous unlimited download subscription service for £50 a year or £4.99 a month."

Price may be a sticking point for Napster. In the familiar prices across the Atlantic transformation, the dollar sign is effectively replaced by the pound sign. So, tracks cost from 99p and albums start at £9.95. There's also a 10 per cent discount on multiple-track buys which cuts the track cost to 88p.

A Napster subscription is £9.95 a month with the option of going to Napster Light and paying £1.09 per track or from £9.95 per album.

Howard said: "We've got agreements with all the five major record companies and with AIM [the Association of Independent Music]."

The agreement isn't totally flawless as only 500,000 tracks of the 700,000 track-strong US repertoire will be available here.

Napster's UK site, www.napster.co.uk, was up and running this morning and UK visitors to the US site were automatically switched to it. Napster 2.0 uses Windows Media Audio and Digital Rights Management. While the site is designed for Media 9.0, anyone with version 7.1 or above of the application can access the music.

Howard said he didn't know how many hits the UK site had received today.

The company's Canadian site is still under construction.