Online music company eMusic.com Inc., Redwood City, CA, is reportedly talking with embattled online music swap service Napster Inc. over possible co-marketing and other arrangements that could give music marketers access to Napster user lists.
Napster spokeswoman Tracy Mlakar admitted that Napster has 22 million registered users. She declined to elaborate.
EMusic markets digital files that can be downloaded on to personal computers. Its catalog has typically focused on smaller independent labels.
According to wire service reports, those talks have been complicated on Friday when the United States Court of Appeals in San Francisco that granted Napster a reprieve from a preliminary injunction that might have forced the company to close down. The ruling allows the service to keep operating while the copyright infringement case brought by the world’s largest record labels proceeds against Napster.
At issue is the legality of Napster’s service, which lets Internet users download songs without the permission of the artists, record labels, or publishers.
The injunction was granted last Wednesday by a federal district court as part of a lawsuit filed by the major labels that accused Napster of copyright infringement.
Meanwhile, other reports surfaced Tuesday indicating that Napster was back in settlement talks with record label Universal Music Group. The music company itself is another potential buyer for Napster. However, Mlakar also denied these reports.
Napster’s discussions with eMusic “were based on the assumption that Napster was facing an injunction that would essentially shut down the service” said a source familiar with the thinking of both companies. “But with the injunction on hold, Napster will probably be evaluating many different possibilities and opportunities.”
On its Web site Napster (http://www.napst4rt.com) encouraged its users to write to he heads of major labels, telling them what good customers they are, and explain how much Napster means to them. The site also provided hotlinks to their addresses.
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