Best Buy and Napster in marketing alliance
Retailer aims to capitalise on success of music downloads
Best Buy, one of the biggest US electricals retailers, has announced an ongoing marketing deal with music download specialist Napster.
Best Buy will promote Napster through in-store POS as well as in its wider advertising campaigns, joining the growing ranks of retailers looking to be a part of the fundamental changes in the way consumers are buying music. Napster, which started as an illegal download service but is now part of the growing legal market under owner Roxio, has a similar arrangement with Dixons in the UK.
As part of the deal, Best Buy is receiving Roxio shares worth up to $10m. Napster will work with Best Buy on joint marketing activities, with a co-branded version of Napster offered for download at the Bestbuy.com online store.
With Apple heavily promoting its iTunes service, the alliance will help both companies compete for share of the market.
[img r]napsterlogo.jpg[/img]Chris Gorog, chairman and CEO of Napster and Roxio said: “This is a very important deal for Napster as we prepare for the Christmas selling season. It will give us enough lead time to get the hundreds of Best Buy stores kitted out with Napster promotional material and demonstration kiosks, and also to train the staff.
“Our experience is that when consumers actually see the Napster service, they find it very compelling. So having a sales representative in a store to show a customer how Napster works should be a very effective form of marketing for us.”
