"Napster will open its long-promised portable music subscription service Thursday, which will make it the first company to put muscle behind a new music 'rental' model aimed at undermining Apple Computer's digital music dominance," reports CNet.
"The company said its Napster to Go service would go live Thursday, charging people $14.95 monthly for the ability to download an unlimited number of songs and play them on compatible MP3 players. The songs would be playable only for as long as the subscriber keeps paying for the service,"
The service uses Microsoft's DRM, and as the story notes; "Even RealNetworks, a bitter rival of Microsoft in some arenas, plans to launch a new version of its Rhapsody music subscription service using Microsoft's new rights-management technology."
Comment: CNet says: "Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, has dismissed the idea of subscription-based services." However, Steve's dismissals generally seem to indicate that Apple is working on something but isn't yet ready to launch it.
