NAPSTER GETS WITH THE PROGRAM

Napster is downloading an upgrade to its staff.

The online music destination—once the scourge of the music biz but now a law-abiding division of Roxio—has tapped industry vet Darcy Fulmer as a senior music consultant, and promoted staffers Wendy Kayland and Micah McKinney to Senior Director posts.

Fulmer, who previously served as Music Director at MTV, VH1, KROQ L.A. and KZZP Phoenix, among others, will oversee programming and liaise with the industry.
She will also explain to EVP Creative Affairs Glenn Kaino what “liaise” means.

Kayland and McKinney both served at Roxio-owned pressplay, where they spent most of their time explaining why part of the company's name was italicized. Kayland previously worked at Elektra Records and House of Blues; McKinney was employed at Satellite Films.

They will jointly manage programming and label relations, Napster’s Sessions program and artist placement. They’ll also coordinate with the marketing department on artist-based campaigns and dream of the day they get to meet Shawn Fanning. Or even John Fanning.

The hiring of Fulmer and the promotions of Kayland and McKinney follow the departure of Alex Luke, who’d been Napster VP of Programming since 2001.

In other Napster news, the company recently set up an unusual deal with Penn State University whereby the institution pays for legal student downloads (using a large-scale Premium subscription) as a positive anti-piracy measure. And starting next week, the site will also make prepaid cards available via 14,000+ retailers nationwide.

Since the kitty debuted Napster 2.0, it says, it has sold more than 300,000 tracks, and Premium members have downloaded or streamed over 2 million. Napster believes Premium subscribers will pass the 800k mark by year's end.