Napster in deal with Loudeye

LOS ANGELES: Napster Inc. on Thursday said it had reached a deal for Loudeye

Technologies Inc. to provide technology that will help it identify music on its

new service planned for launch this summer as well as its currently running,

court-challenged service.



Loudeye's technology translates digital fingerprints of music files that Napster
has begun generating through a separate relationship with Relatable. Loudeye's

shares soared 58 cents, or 48 per cent, to $1.79 on Nasdaq after climbing to a

session high of $2.25. Relatable's software reads sonic characteristics of song

files and tags them with "fingerprints" and then Loudeye identifies

the actual songs that the fingerprints represent using a database it has

compiled through agreements with the world's biggest recording companies and

independent labels.

Since March, the once-phenomenally popular Napster has seen usage drop

sharply as it has begun complying with a court order that bars it from offering

copyrighted songs on its service. Napster, however, got a shot in the arm this

week after MusicNet - a joint music subscription service between RealNetworks

Inc. and three big record labels, AOL Time Warner's Warner Music, EMI Group Plc

and Bertelsmann AG's BMG - announced a licensing deal for the song-swap service

to carry these labels' content once it launches a fully copyright-friendly

version of its service this summer. These labels are part of an industry-wide

lawsuit against Napster.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.