Napster's MP3s begin to vanish
USA Today
The number of songs available to trade on beleaguered online music swap site Napster has dropped by more than half as the service, under court order, continues to refine its file-filtering system.
Associated Press
More songs are likely to disappear soon as the record industry adds to the list of files it considers to be infringing on copyrights. And millions of disappointed Napster users could disappear nearly as quickly.
The Napster Web site is offering far fewer songs as the company refines filtering equipment required by a court.
Market-research firm Webnoize says about 60 percent fewer digital music files are available, down from an average of 172 songs per user to 71, since the filtering system was improved Wednesday evening.
"The filter is blocking out just over 100 tracks per user," says Webnoize analyst Matt Bailey. "Napster will be improving the filter over the next few days, and we think it will be much more difficult to find music. You'll then see the number of users dropping very sharply."
"There's still tremendous interest in the service," Napster chief executive officer Hank Barry said. "Usage hasn't gone down at all."
Napster, which has been adding about 200,000 registered users daily for the last two months, will pass 70 million this weekend. He predicts that even with less music, they'll remain loyal.
"I reject the conventional wisdom that people only listen to the Top 10," he said. "They have a much wider interest."
In February, as Napster's fate increasingly came into question, 16.9 million surfers visited once or more, up 17 percent from January, says audience-measurement firm Jupiter Media Metrix.
Napster, which hopes to launch a fee-based service in July in partnership with Bertelsmann, has now blocked access to nearly 60,000 songs.
