Los Angeles — Napster announced that it will soon launch an over-the-air (OTA) version of its music service in Japan, eventually to be offered in the United States.
The service will represent the first deployment of Napster’s OTA music subscription service that allows users to receive full-length songs OTA via their cellphones without using a PC. It will be offered through Napster Japan, a joint venture with Napster and Tower Records Japan and with NTT DoCoMo.
Napster said it is also working with Ericsson to deploy Napster OTA to other countries including the United States, but no timetable has been set.
In Japan, Napster OTA will be available via 904i handsets from DoCoMo that will be released shortly. Napster will also integrate billing for the service with the users’ DoCoMo cellphone service bill.
