Article is here.

For those without the inclination to go, Vivendi Universal purchased MP3.com for $372 million.

They claim that they are developing an 'online subscription music service', sounding similar to the supposed BMI/Napster pairing.

"MP3.com will be a likely candidate for Vivendi Universal's Duet, an online digital music subscription service it is developing jointly with Sony Corp, said Anita Larsen, a spokeswoman for Vivendi in New York.

The Duet service is expected to launch this summer with streaming music and plans to add downloads shortly thereafter. Vivendi said it will have thousands of songs on the Internet from Universal Music Group, a subsidiary, and Sony Music Entertainment available in a fee-based subscription model."

Interesting...

Here is the press release from MP3.com.

A lot of talk about maintaining the 'same level of service while developing new products'. Quite interesting after reading the comments of Hesperis and others on the latest moves they've made...

Any opinions from those most centrally interested, i.e., the artists who use the service?

M