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Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Napster Dramatically Improves Portable Subscription Experience With New PowerSync(TM) Technology

Napster Dramatically Improves Portable Subscription Experience With New PowerSync(TM) Technology

Announces Immediate Availability of New 1GB Napster MP3 Player

LOS ANGELES, June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Napster (NASDAQ:NAPS) announced today the immediate availability of Napster 3.7, an updated version of its award-winning digital music service featuring PowerSync, an optimized sync engine that adds unprecedented speed and ease to the process of transferring subscription music content to any of a growing number of compatible MP3 players. Developed by Napster's in-house development team, Napster 3.7 with PowerSync is only available to digital music fans who subscribe to Napster.

"Napster 3.7 significantly enhances the digital music experience and finally delivers on the promise of truly seamless transfer of subscription music content to compatible MP3 players," said William Pence, Napster's chief technology officer. "Building our own technology enabled us to dramatically reduce transfer time while simultaneously enhancing both the overall performance and reliability of the service."

Napster also announced that music fans can quickly begin enjoying the unparalleled portable experience created through PowerSync with a new Napster MP3 player. The new 1GB flash-based device features a color LCD screen, FM tuner, six equalizer settings, support for both WMA and MP3 files and can be used to view JPEG files and play MPEG4 videos.

Through a special promotion currently featured on Napster's Web site, Napster To Go subscribers can get the new Napster-branded player for only $50 when they purchase 12 months of the service. As in the past, Napster To Go annual subscribers can instead opt to receive a 256 MB flash-based Napster player for free with their paid subscription. Information on both bundle offers can be found at www.napster.com.

The Napster To Go portable subscription music service is also compatible with over 65 digital music players, cell phones and PDAs, including exciting new models from Samsung, Toshiba, Creative, SanDisk and many others.

Whatever compatible device they use, Napster To Go subscribers enjoy additional benefits with this most-recent Napster software upgrade. Napster 3.7 allows Napster To Go subscribers to choose to have their MP3 player automatically sync with Napster each time it is docked to their computer. This ensures the content on the device always mirrors the content in their Napster music library, including their most-recently created playlists, and also significantly reduces the amount of time required to manage large music collections. Also, Napster To Go subscribers can enjoy subscription content on three compatible portable devices simultaneously, as opposed to on only two.

In addition to the new PowerSync sync engine, Napster 3.7 features several other usability upgrades that will enhance the Napster experience for all subscribers, as well as Napster.com members who use the software to purchase a la carte downloads and albums. Users will notice the addition of an "always on" icon to their computer's system tray toolbar, which provides faster access to the Napster application. The new software also shows users the progress of their music transfers in graphical format and notifies them when their portable device is approaching maximum capacity. If they are moving music to a device that supports graphics, Napster 3.7 will transfer album art directly from Napster's library to the device.

"As the pioneer of portable music subscription, we challenged ourselves to create an exceptional music transfer experience for Napster To Go subscribers and we believe we deliver exactly that with Napster 3.7," said Chris Gorog, Napster's chairman and CEO. "Windows-based MP3 players, music-enabled cell phones and PDAs are expected to ship in the tens of millions over the next year and we are pleased to approach this rapidly-expanding market with the fastest and most reliable portable music subscription service in the market."

Current Napster subscribers and music fans who had previously downloaded the Napster software to purchase tracks or albums a la carte from Napster can immediately upgrade to Napster 3.7. New subscribers and music fans who would like to purchase a la carte music can simply download this new software for free at Napster.com, Napster's recently-launched interactive music destination which allows free, on-demand listening to over two million major and independent-label tracks.

As always, Napster and Napster To Go subscribers enjoy unlimited access to CD-quality music in an advertising free environment. The new subscription service optimization, together with Napster.com, reflect the Company's continuing commitment to offering music fans the most accessible, flexible digital music experience possible. Napster To Go, the world's first portable subscription service, allows unlimited transfer of Napster music to compatible MP3 players for just $14.95 per month. The standard Napster subscription service is $9.95 per month.

About Napster

Napster (NASDAQ:NAPS) is committed to making great music experiences more accessible to all music fans. Napster.com gives web users the power to legally listen on-demand to a massive catalogue of music from major and independent labels, wherever they are on the Web -- for FREE. The Napster music subscription service offers a premium experience that includes unlimited access to CD-quality music and advanced discovery, community and programming features in an advertising-free environment, and Napster To Go subscribers also enjoy unlimited transfer of music to a compatible MP3 player. Napster Light, an a la carte download store, and Napster Mobile, a hosted music service featuring artist images, ring tones and full-length songs, round out the Napster digital music line-up. Napster is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Frankfurt, London, Luxembourg, New York, San Diego and Tokyo. For more information, please visit www.napster.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this press release, in particular matters related to the synchronization of popular hardware devices with the Napster services, the expected shipments of compatible devices and the recent growth of the Napster.com service contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including interoperability with popular third party hardware devices, intense competition, and reliance on third party content that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Additional information on these and other risk factors are contained in Napster's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed with the SEC on June 9, 2006, 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) 2006 Napster, LLC. All rights reserved. Napster, Napster To Go, Napster Mobile, Napster Light and PowerSync are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Napster, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.

Napster Contact:
Dana M. Harris / Becky Farina
Napster
310-281-5000
dana.harris@napster.com /
becky.farina@napster.com

Natalie A. Svider / Rose Maciejewski
Ruder Finn, Inc.
310-882-4006 / 310-882-4002
svidern@ruderfinn.com /
maciejewskir@ruderfinn.com

Source: Napster, Inc.

CONTACT: Dana M. Harris, dana.harris@napster.com, or Becky Farina,
becky.farina@napster.com, both of Napster, Inc., +1-310-281-5000; or Natalie
A. Svider, +1-310-882-4006, svidern@ruderfinn.com, or Rose Maciejewski,
+1-310-882-4002, maciejewskir@ruderfinn.com, both of Ruder Finn, Inc., for
Napster, Inc.

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

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