Napster’s streaming music iPhone app put on ice

Posted in iPhone News by admin. Published September 2nd, 2009

With Spotify having announced that their streaming music iPhone app has been approved for the iPhone AppStore, we were expecting to see Napster’s own streaming music app launching on the iPhone in the near future. But, according to the Best Buy-owned music subscription service, the Napster iPhone app has been put on ice.

Napster says they already have their iPhone app developed and ready to go, but has resisted pulling the trigger on submitting the app to the AppStore. “Napster has not yet submitted the iPhone app to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) for approval or attempted to bring the application to market,” says Napster. Apparently, Napster is dealing “high licensing fees for streaming to a mobile phone,” that has kept the company from going mobile with the Napster subscription music service.

The Android and BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) platforms are also targets for Napster’s mobile streaming music service, but plans for these mobile operating systems have also been put in the chiller.

Napster already offers streaming music subscriptions to desktop computer users for $5. We have to wonder what kind of licensing fees record labels are asking for streaming to mobile phones. They must be exorbitant if the fees are enough to make Napster rethink their plans for the mobile space.

Rhapsody, anyone?

[Thanks: http://www.intomobile.com]