Background:

Many brand meisters advise you not to change a big famous brand name unless it has been irreparably damaged, because it takes so long to build good brand awareness when you have to start from scratch. Why then would someone with fairly good brand recognition in the online music business (Roxio) go out and buy a very tarnished brand? Yes, it gives them instant notoriety - but Napster is the name that was associated with all that was illegal and wrong with the original models.

Not only has the name Napster become synonymous with illegal downloads, but the name was surely originally chosen because of the hidden linguistics and slang to nab (or steal). It's just too close to nabster. Same connotations, on a personal level, as mobster too!

And so they have to rebrand and reposition Napster all over again, and sacrifice their own master brand. Every Napster customer is surely a prospect for a Roxio player or CD Burner too! We fail to see why this site could not have been more profitably called Roxio Music (or similar) and be a major element in the Roxio brand portfolio.

The logo of the cat nabber is kind of cute, of course, so they kept this too. Visit them at www.napster.com.