This was a non-starter from the start: Virgin Digital, the digital music service in U.S. from Virgin Group, has closed down after no traction and a rash of management defections over the last year. The site/service now directs to Napster, who will take over the Virgin subscribers. The Virgin service was launched in Sept 2004.
Meanwhile, Napster has increased its guidance: it expects to report more than $28 million in Q4 quarterly revenue and 566,000 paid worldwide subscribers, while it previously expected its Q4 revenues to exceed $27 million. Also, Napster reported that its subscribers downloaded 500 million songs and over 700 million music streams in 2006. Some more details on that here.
AP: ThinkEquity Partners analyst Darren Aftahi in a client note said Napster’s good news might not help shares substantially until the company can either demonstrate solid subscriber traction from its mobile carrier partnerships or until it becomes an acquisition target.
Related:
-- Industry Moves: Virgin Digital CEO & CTO Leave to Form Consultancy
-- Virgin Digital Execs Leave To Form Venture Firm Focusing on Digital Media
-- Virgin Launching Online Music Subscription Service