NAPSTER POPULARITY
CONTINUES TO RISE

While all the majors gear up for their own online subscription pay services, free swapper Napster continues to be a thorn in their collective sides.

A Web site that analyzes personal computers reported Tuesday (10/24) that Napster software was installed on 30% of the PCs it tested last month.

The rising number of Napster-equipped PCs has now surpassed computers bearing such software packages as Microsoft Works, Microsoft Money, ICQ, Intuit Quicken and McAfee VirusScan, said Rob Cheng, President of PC Pitstop, in an interview with Newsbytes.

At its current growth rate, Napster is on track to compete with other freely downloaded applications such as WinAmp, WinZip, RealPlayer and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Last month's 30% Napster rate compares to just 12% in March, when PC Pitstop began keeping track of how many PCs contain software of Napster, Scour and Gnutella. While way behind Napster, the other sites have grown considerably in the past six months, Scour from 0% in March to 5.6% and Gnutella from .06% to 1.6%.