14 DAY TRIAL // Napster announced that it will soon launch the first deployment of its over-the-air music subscription service through Napster Japan, a joint venture between Napster and Tower Records Japan, with NTT DoCoMo. The service will be the first deployment of Napster's wireless music subscription service and will provide DoCoMo's customers with over-the-air access to Napster's music catalog, with full integration with Napster's PC-based subscription service.
The new Napster service will be available to DoCoMo's iMode subscribers via the 904i series of handsets that will soon be released in Japan. Napster's over-the-air music subscription service is an extension of the Napster To Go PC service, which enables unlimited downloads and transfer of tracks for a monthly fee to compatible portable digital music devices and cell phones. Napster's new OTA subscription functionality will be available to DoCoMo's customers as an extension of the Napster To Go service at no additional cost and will be available to both new and current Napster To Go customers.
In addition to receiving full-length songs directly on the their handsets, when subscribers use the Napster To Go over-the-air service to download tracks without connecting to a PC, those tracks will be bookmarked and added to the PC collection. Also, users of the wireless service will be able to view playlists available on the PC and download them directly to the handset over-the-air.
Napster will offer the ability to integrate billing for the Napster To Go service directly into a DoCoMo user's mobile phone bill. 904i series handset users will have the option to sign up for Napster To Go directly from their mobile and select integrated billing at the time of registration.