Rhapsody And Napster Reaches Over 2 Million Subscribers

Rhapsody International, parent company of Rhapsody and Napster, has reached more than two million paying subscribers globally for its premium music services, including Napster, Rhapsody and its recently launched Internet radio service, Rhapsody unRadio.

This is a significant milestone for the company and the music subscription model it has championed since 2001.

Rhapsody International also announced it will extend Napster's presence in Europe and in Latin America through expanded partnerships with two of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies, SFR and Telefonica, to make Napster-branded music services available to those companies' mobile customers.

Last month, Rhapsody launched a breakthrough new Internet radio service, Rhapsody unRadio, in partnership with United States mobile operator T-Mobile.

With unRadio, listeners can skip an unlimited number of songs, listen without annoying and intrusive advertisements, and when they hear a song they love, they can mark it as a favorite and automatically save it for later listening - even when they're offline.

Now, Rhapsody's Napster division and SFR, France's second largest mobile operator, are bringing this radio service to Europe for the first time.

SFR and Napster are making this service available to users in France under the Napster brand, as Napster Decouverte (Napster Discovery).

Napster Decouverte, which is available now for EUR3.95 (3.95 Euros) per month, will be marketed alongside the Napster Premier service that SFR and Rhapsody launched last fall, giving French music fans two great ways to discover and enjoy music through Napster.

In Latin America, Napster and Telefonica have launched and are actively promoting the Napster Premier service in several new countries, including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

These commercial launches are the result of a strategic agreement Rhapsody and Telefonica announced last fall, through which select Telefonica operating businesses in Europe and Latin America will deliver the Napster Premier music service to mobile and fixed line customers.

"Today is a day to thank the Rhapsody and Napster members around the world whose passion and insane love of music motivate us every day," said Paul Springer, senior vice president, for the Americas and chief product officer of Rhapsody International. "Our recently launched radio service underscores our commitment to giving mobile music fans even more ways to discover and download great music.

We're excited to build on our U.S. momentum by launching this service in Europe, in partnership with SFR."

Rhapsody and Napster users are highly engaged with the service and its global catalog of more than 32 million tracks, with more than 80% of listening happening on mobile.

Over the past three months, the songs, albums and artists most popular with Rhapsody and Napster members included:

Most popular songs:

Global - "Happy" by Pharrell Williams
United States - "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX
Latin America - "Happy" by Pharrell Williams
Europe - "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit feat. Jess Glyne
Most popular albums:

Global - "G I R L" by Pharrell Williams
United States - "Nothing was the Same" by Drake
Latin America - "Live in London - At the Royal Albert Hall" by Julio Iglesias
Europe - "Frozen" by Various Artists
Most popular artists:

Global - Michael Jackson
United States - Eminem
Latin America - Jorge & Mateus
Europe - Coldplay