Former online music pariah Napster pulled in more than 150 independent European labels in deals to supply its new subscription service with content, Reuters reports.
A day after losing out in the courts in its battle with the U.S. record industry, Napster said Tuesday that Tom Jones, Stereophonics, Moby and hundreds of other independent label artists would join its new royalty-paying service due for launch this summer. Napster, which is being sued by the U.S. music industry for copyright infringement on its original free service, would not disclose the terms of the deal but industry sources said the company had paid millions of dollars to secure the deal.
The European labels will join artists from major music groups BMG, EMI Plc and AOL Time Warner Inc., which have also signed a licensing deal to supply music to Napster's new service via their MusicNet subscription service.
