Target and Napster create marketing tie-ins for music downloaders

January 8, 2004

GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us that starting next month, shoppers can purchase
a "Napster BurnPak" at Target. Roxio is going on the offensive in an effort to
gain market share from the well entrenched iTunes.

Napster and its parent company, Roxio, of Santa Clara, California, announced on Wednesday an agreement with Imation (a provider of removable data storage media), Case Logic (a portable media storage company), and Target, based in Minneapolis, to offer the service in a format it believes will appeal to consumers.

The Napster Burnpak will be available at all of Target"s 1227 U.S. stores, as well as at Target.com, and will include a prepaid Napster download card, a Napster 2.0 and Roxio software pack, blank Napster-brand optical products from Imation that feature unique "value-added" promotional codes for redeeming free music downloads, and Napster-brand CD cases from Case Logic, the companies say. Pricing for the pack will be released closer to the product's launch date, a Napster spokesperson says.

One-stop shopping by combining its brand with Targets' ability to reach consumers, Imations' storage media products, and Case Logics' carrying case, Napster hopes to offer an "all-in-one, one-stop shopping" product that will provide stiff competition for both Apples ITunes and Wal-Marts' online music store, the spokesperson says.

ITunes and Napster are already the market leaders, says Mark Mulligan, a senior analyst with Jupiter Research in London. "If anything, Napster has a broader, richer appeal with its capabilities to burn music onto CD, for example, but ITunes has had a head start with IPod," he says.

This is a smart ploy to help compete in a business with little or no profit margin. It's no secret that Roxio is betting their future on Napster. This sort of marketing concept is very sophisticated and will be interesting to follow. I have used the new Napster to find and purchase certain tracks which are not readily available in other forms. However, you cannot find everything you want with just one service. Each one has different catalogs.

Source: Yahoo