Rhapsody buys Napster International from Best Buy |
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In October, Seattle music-streaming service Rhapsody signed an agreement to acquire Napster, a unit of consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co.
And now Rhapsody says it has acquired Napster International, the first subscription music service in Europe. The deal comes on the heels of Facebook’s announcement that it would integrate streaming music services, including Spotify, the European-born service.
Under the terms of the deal, Rhapsody will own and operate the Napster service in Germany and the United Kingdom. Financial details of the deal were not revealed.
Best Buy owned Napster UK and Germany as well, but was not included in the earlier Napster deal with Rhapsody.
“The acquisition of Napster and its subscriber base in the UK and Germany gives us an ideal entry to the European market,” said Jon Irwin, president of Rhapsody. “Through the benefit of scale, the strength of our editorial programming and strategic partnerships, we can now bring the Napster service to even more consumers on a variety of platforms.”
Rhapsody retains all Napster International employees and will operate under the Napster brand in Germany and the UK. Napster subscribers will be migrated to Rhapsody’s infrastructure in March.
Rhapsody says with 1 million subscribers, it is the largest premium subscription music service in the United States. Rhapsody’s streaming service is averaging more than 10 million songs a day
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