News.com: Napster reaches 5m downloads
In contrast, Apple has sold 25 million tracks on iTunes as of December 2003. 12 million of those tracks were sold between October and December.
The Register: Napster song sales hit 5m: "[Apple iTunes] yields a (rough) average monthly download rate of 2.78m songs - Napster's rate works out at 1.25m songs a month, so it has some way to go to catch up."
However, Napster is not just an online music store, it's also a subscription service. While it ranks 2nd among download services, Napster falls in to 4th place among streaming subscription services behind RealNetworks' Rhapsody service, America Online's MusicNet and MusicMatch. According to the San Jose Mercury News (Smiles fade at Napster), Napster has attracted about 90,000 subscribers in its first two months.
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