Company Strengthens Team with Online Veteran from Blockbuster Online, Yahoo! Music and Musicmatch

Company Strengthens Team with Online Veteran from Blockbuster Online, Yahoo! Music and Musicmatch

Napster (Nasdaq: NAPS) today announced that Christopher Allen will join the Company as Chief Operating Officer effective August 6, 2007. Mr. Allen will be responsible for product strategy, development and marketing and will report to Chris Gorog, Napster’s Chairman and CEO.

Mr. Allen comes to Napster having most recently served as Vice President, Product Strategy, Design, and Marketing for Blockbuster Online, where he was responsible for driving the product strategy, design and development of the popular Blockbuster website and overseeing the online customer experience. Over the past six months, Blockbuster’s Total Access subscriber base more than doubled, and unique visitors to blockbuster.com grew more than 60% according to comScore MediaMetrix.

“Christopher brings a track record of guiding substantial growth for online companies and a wealth of highly relevant experience to Napster. We are delighted to add Christopher to our team and look forward to having him drive innovation and continue to improve the user experience for both new users and Napster’s current subscribers,” said Mr. Gorog.

Prior to Blockbuster, Mr. Allen served as Vice President of Product Strategy and Marketing at Yahoo! Music and was responsible for driving the global product vision and managing the strategic product and service roadmap for Yahoo! Music. A seasoned executive with over 12 years of product and marketing experience, Mr. Allen oversaw the media and premium service lines of business and all aspects of product management and product planning for Yahoo! Music products, services, and emerging platforms.

Mr. Allen joined Yahoo! Music in 2004 with that company’s acquisition of Musicmatch. As Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning at Musicmatch, he directed the overall product and consumer marketing strategy, including customer acquisition and retention strategies for premium software and subscription services. Mr. Allen managed key consumer marketing initiatives including merchandising, e-commerce, and partner marketing activities as the Musicmatch userbase grew ten-fold in less than five years. He was also chartered with analyzing future product trends to evaluate integration of digital music services into emerging technologies and devices. During his tenure at Musicmatch, the company received seven consecutive PC Magazine Editors’ Choice awards for excellence and countless accolades for leadership in digital music products and services.

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