Napster Gives Away Music Players with Subscription

The razor blade strategy to the fore again: Napster is offering free digital music players with a one-year subscription in the latest bid by an online music service to lure consumers with promotional offers.

On its site, Napster said it would give consumers a Rio Chiba Sport portable music device, valued at about $130, if they sign up for the subscription, which is valued at $119.40. The device features 128 megabytes of storage capacity and includes a stopwatch, sports headphones and an armband.

Consumers can upgrade to a larger capacity Rio Nitrus by paying an additional $80.

An interestign quote from a research analyst: “While Roxio has forecast up to $40 million in Napster revenues this year, we believe that they really have to reach close to $300 million to break even and reaching that goal will likely not happen in the next 12 months.”

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