News 

iTunes's noisiest rival in the music downloads market is looking to counter Apple's biggest asset, the iPod, by raising the profiles of rival, Napster-compatible players. To this end it has opened the Napster Store selling the 'latest in MP3 players', though at the moment that amounts to a choice of nine Creative models.

It is also giving away a three-month trial to Napster To Go for anyone buying a Creative Zen Micro or Portable Media Center from the store.

Other changes include: Playlist To Go, which lets subscribers transfer ready made playlists of 100 songs with a single click; full-length video streams; Tribute, highlighting back catalogue artists; Foundation, exploring musical genres and their most important tracks and artists; and Napster Recommends, highlighting the best of exclusive content, new tracks and albums.

Napster recently increased its expected revenues for this quarter following the launch of Napster To Go, which allows users to transfer as many songs as they choose from the 1,000,000 plus in the catalogue to a portable player for £14.95 per month. On the downside, songs will no longer play if the subscription is discontinued.