Rhapsody is making its first international moves with the purchase of Napster in the UK and Germany. In the U.S., Rhapsody acquired Napster from Best Buy last year and retired the brand. In Europe, the music subscription service will operate under the napster brand and retain all Napster International.
Napster subscribers will be migrated to Rhapsody’s infrastructure in March while keeping their music libraries. “This is the perfect time to extend our borders – both geographically and technologically, as we take our service to new places, including the automobile and the living room,” says said Jon Irwin, president, Rhapsody.
Launched in 2011, Rhapsody was the first subscription music service, and with more than 1 million paying subscribers is the largest in the U.S.