Napster in a deal with XM

Napster in a deal with XM

Just days after signing on a collaboration deal with mobile giant Samsung, XM has now signed on with Napster. XM Satellite Radio is now collaborating with Napster to provide a co-branded service to their users. The deal would now allow users to download music they listen to through the Napster digital music online store. The companies however declined to reveal the financial details between them for the deal.

The co branded service would be called “XM + Napster” and it would be launched later this year when the new XM-enabled MP3 players from Samsung arrives in the market. These digital devices would come in two models featuring different storage capacities. These players would be using XM’s Connect and Play technology that would allow the users to listen to live satellite programming or listen to songs downloaded from a computer.

Users of these new mobile phones would be able to save the music they hear on the XM radio stations for future listening or purchase the songs from the “XM + Napster” service. These downloaded media content can later be used on other mp3 players as well allowing for wider access to the digital content.

Napster is one of the biggest competitors of Apple’s iTunes music store, which locks the access to their store to the Apple iPod device. Napster would give XM access to a wider range of digital music players and have a wider scope of prospective services. It also becomes important considering Apple has tied up with Motorola to provide similar online music purchase facility on their mobile phones from the iTunes music store.