Mumbai: Napster and Ericsson launched the Napster Mobile music service with O2 UK, the leading wireless carrier serving the UK market with more than 18 million subscribers.

Co-developed by Napster and Ericsson, Napster Mobile is a premium music service offering an array of features and content. O2 UK customers will be able to search, browse, preview, purchase and play full-length tracks from Napster’s massive catalog of more than 5 million songs.

Napster Mobile also offers dual-delivery for simultaneous downloads to a subscriber’s PC and mobile phone, a unique feature that provides users the convenience of downloading songs directly to their phones with a high-fidelity copy of the song available to download on their PCs.

The service also features a recommendation tool and access to Napster’s expert programming on the handset, including featured artists and top tracks.

"We’re extremely excited to be partnering with O2 UK on the launch of Napster Mobile," said Napster president Brad Duea. "We look forward to delivering a superior mobile music experience to O2 UK’s customers, along with the largest mobile music catalog available. It’s the perfect extension of Napster’s online service in the UK."

"This is another great example of our strategy of creating deep level partnerships with the best companies in the world to deliver compelling services to our customers," said O2 UK marketing director Sally Cowdry. "Working with the right partners at O2 UK is crucial to our success and we have joined forces with a leader in this space to bring our customers a high quality, great value service with the widest choice of songs available on mobile."

"We’re happy to see this second launch of Napster Mobile in the O2 group, following that of O2 Ireland in 2006. Music is an important area for telecom operators and we believe that O2 UK’s subscribers will find this a very attractive service," said Ericsson UK managing director Jacqueline Hey.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment UK and Ireland chairman Ged Doherty added, "Napster pioneered subscription services in the online world. We are delighted to support them as they move into the mobile space with O2 — another brand making a considerable impact on the music landscape."

Ericsson will host, integrate and manage the around-the-clock operations of the service for O2 UK under a managed service agreement.