Napster in deal to license Musicnet service

LOS ANGELES: MusicNet, a music subscription service comprised of three

major recording companies and RealNetworks Inc. on Tuesday confirmed they had

reached an agreement under which Napster will become a licensee of the service.

Napster becomes the third distribution partner for MusicNet, said

RealNetworks chief executive officer Rob Glaser who is acting chief executive of

MusicNet.

The other two licensing affiliates, RealNetworks and America Online, were

announced in April. AOL, RealNetworks and Napster are all expected to begin

offering their MusicNet-based subscription services to consumers by late summer

2001.

The three labels involved in the venture, which are AOL Time Warner Music,

EMI Group Plc and Bertelsmann AG's BMG, will permit their content to be

delivered to Napster once it has transformed itself into a non-infringing

service that accurately tracks the identity of files, MusicNet and Napster said.

All three of these labels are part of an industry-wide lawsuit against

Napster that was filed in December 1999, alleging the service of infringing

their copyrights.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.