Rhapsody, the streaming music subscription service, announced on Thursday that it has bought Napster assets in Germany and the UK. The company also bought Napster’s business in the US before laying off the majority of those employees. Rhapsody promises to keep the European employees on, however, and the Napster name there will remain untouched.
Prices will stay the same, but subscribers will need to move over to the Rhapsody system in March.
With the entrance into the market, Rhapsody may be looking to challenge Spotify as the number one music service in the UK, though Spotify doesn’t yet have a presence in Germany. In Germany, Napster is believed to have a 70 percent share and could hand Rhapsody a rare, immediate market share lead.
