Ericsson and Napster Enter Global Partnership

Ericsson and Napster Enter Global Partnership

Flexible Digital Music Platform Designed for All Mobile Carriers, Handsets From Multiple Manufacturers and PC Interoperability

LOS ANGELES, and STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Napster (NASDAQ:NAPS), the biggest brand in digital music, and Ericsson, the world's leading telecommunications supplier, announced today a global partnership to offer the first complete, fully integrated digital music service available for mobile operators.

The service will carry the universally known Napster brand and combine elements of Napster's popular PC offering and Ericsson's personalized music service, currently utilized by more mobile operators than any other in the world. The Napster and Ericsson business model accommodates mobile operator participation in all revenue streams. The service is scheduled to go live in Europe over the next 12 months and will initially be offered to operators in select markets in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America.

"Ericsson's world-leading wireless and telecommunications solutions experience, along with their exceptional client base, make them the ideal partner to deepen Napster's presence in the global mobile arena," said Chris Gorog, Napster's chairman and CEO. "Ericsson and Napster are uniquely suited to offer mobile operators a simple, cohesive and personalized digital music experience for their consumers."

The new service will support coordinated wireless and PC downloading of digital music in both subscription and a la carte models, and phone-based initiation will ensure convenient and easy music library access for both mobile and PC usage. The service scales to current handset models and networks but can also accommodate next-generation technology for newer handsets on higher-speed networks and is designed to work on mobile phones from all major manufacturers that support content protected by digital rights management. The flexible platform delivers a complete digital music solution under one brand via a consistent user interface and with billing consolidated by mobile operators.

"With Napster we are uniquely positioned to deliver the easy to use, complete suite of music offerings our customers are asking for," said Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson. "We gain access to the strongest digital music brand in the world and exposure to the largest music catalog available, which will not only increase our customer's consumer offerings and revenues but substantially strengthen their own brand image as well."

Napster's brand, catalog, label relationships, programming, PC and portable offerings will be combined with Ericsson's operator relationships, wireless development, integration, hosting, deployment and support and IPX charging systems. The service will allow mobile operators to seize growth opportunities for personalized digital entertainment on the mobile phone and PC and will also encompass ring tones, master tones, images, wallpaper and video content.

About Ericsson

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world. Read more at http://www.ericsson.com/press.

About Napster

Napster, the biggest brand in digital music, is a subscription service that enables fans to freely sample the world's largest and most diverse online collection of music and move an unlimited amount of songs to compatible MP3 players. Napster (www.napster.com) members have access to songs from all major labels and hundreds of independents and have more ways to discover, share and acquire new music and old favorites with community features like the ability to email tracks to friends and browse other members' collections. Napster also offers Napster Light, a "lighter" version of the service for those who just want to purchase songs and albums a la carte. Napster is currently available in the United States, Canada and the U.K. and is headquartered in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York, London and Frankfurt.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release, in particular matters related to Napster's strategic relationship with Ericsson, the success of the Napster service and the international expansion of the Napster service contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties such as the new and rapidly changing nature of the online music industry, dependence on the growth of the Internet, broadband and wireless technologies, failure to maintain strategic relationships, risks associated with governmental regulation and legal uncertainties, reliance on content provided by third parties and failure of the Napster service to interoperate with the hardware of Napster's customers, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Additional information on these and other factors are contained in Napster's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as filed with the SEC on February 9, 2005, copies of which are available at the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov/. Napster assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this press release.

Copyright (C) 2005 Napster, LLC. All rights reserved. Napster and Napster Light are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Napster, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries.

Ericsson Contact:
Ericsson Media Relations
Phone: +46 8 719 6992
E-mail: press.relations@ericsson.com

Napster Contacts:
Becky Farina
Napster
310-281-5005
becky.farina@napster.com

Nancy Sullivan, John Conroy
Rogers & Cowan
310-854-8199 or 854-8178
nsullivan@rogersandcowan.comjconroy@rogersandcowan.com

Source: Napster; Ericsson

CONTACT: Ericsson Media Relations, +46-8-719-6992,
press.relations@ericsson.com; or Becky Farina of Napster, +1-310-281-5005,
becky.farina@napster.com; or Nancy Sullivan, +1-310-854-8199,
nsullivan@rogersandcowan.com, or John Conroy, +1-310-854-8178,
jconroy@rogersandcowan.com, both of Rogers & Cowan, for Napster

Web site: http://www.ericsson.com/press

Web site: http://www.napster.com/

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