Napster boasts world's largest catalogue of digital tracks

By Alun Williams

Posted on 6 Sep 2005 at 16:51

With both HMV and Virgin throwing their weight behind the relaunch of their online music services - HMV Digital and Virgin Digital.com, respectively - Napster is keen to remind people of its place in the music download market.

The once-illegitimate file-swapping service has publicly updated its UK business stats.

As well as revealing that its catalogue of digital tracks has grown to 1.6 million, which it claims is the largest in the world, it has 750,000 registered UK users and provided 55 million downloads or streams in the 15 months of its re-emergence.

By comparison, Apple claims 'more than' 1.5 million tracks and HMV launched - courtesy of MusicNet, on which it is based - with 1.3 million tracks digitally converted and ready for download.

Drilling down into the music, the most purchased albums in 2005 have been X&Y (Coldplay), Back to Bedlam (James Blunt) and Scissor Sisters (Scissor Sisters). The most popular streams have been You're Beautiful (James Blunt), Let Me Love You (Mario) and Feel Good (Gorillaz). And the most purchased tracks in 2005 are Is This The Way To Amarillo (Tony Christie), Let Me Love You (Mario) and Feel Good (Gorillaz).

Interestingly, subscribers also buy more music online than single track downloaders, according to Napster. This is in spite of the fact that as well as paying for the subscription service - £9.95 a month - and potentially paying another fiver to Napster To Go to copy subscription downloads onto a compatible player, people are still paying to purchase individual songs so that they can burn them for their own use and posterity. Pay early and pay often could be the mantra - no wonder many content providers favour a subscription-based approach.

In terms of user profiles, Napster says that 80 per cent of members are over 25, with 75 per cent being male. It claims that 1 in 5 of its users no longer buy CDs.