Walt Disney Records Partnering With Napster

[rbendtzen]

Hi.

Have any of you heard that Napster is partnering with Walt Disney Records? If so, what do you think of it?

I heard it on the Mouse Lounge Disney podcast hosted by Gary Chambers. To kick off the partnering, Napster will be offering a free Best of Radio Disney set. It looks like they will also include soundtracks to classic Disney films and theatrical versions of some of the Disney stage shows.

I wonder if Randy Thornton knows about this and if he will eventually move all the things on ITunes to Napster? I personally hope so. For you see, I am totally blind and use a screenreader to help me navigate the web. Napster is much more accessible with my screenreader instead of ITunes.

 

[Zarpman]

The press release doesn't say anything about any exclusivity of the library. Does anyone know if Napster had Walt Disney Records music in the past? This could just be an announcement that they are finally getting the stuff (and promoting it along with a free "Best of Disney" Internet radio station). I know when Disney first appeared on iTunes back in 2005 that it was exclusive to iTunes and no other online retailer. I would find it very hard to believe, given Steve Jobs' relationship with Disney, that they would totally dump iTunes (which also happens to be the #1 distributer of music both online and retail).

 

[diegorivera2]

As Zarp said, the various press releases are less than specific on details but it looks like this is geared towards the Hannah Montana crowd. A similar 'radio station' is already present on iTunes. So, this might be more spreading of the Disney brand after a prior exclusivity contract between Disney and Apple expired. If so, perhaps we're in store for a bigger announcement in the future with the Mouse and the Apple.