LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Napster today announced that Evan Cowitt and Mike Owen have joined Napster's in-house ad sales team selling integrated marketing programs on the Company's recently launched web-based free music listening service. As vice president of Advertising Sales, Western United States, Cowitt reports directly to Napster president Brad Duea and is based in the Company's Los Angeles headquarters. Owen, also reporting directly to Duea, has assumed the role of director of Advertising Sales, Eastern United States, and is based out of the Company's office in New York City.
In addition to offering scalable, targeted advertising programs on Napster's Web site and in the associated Web-based music player, the Napster Ad Sales team is also working with potential advertisers to tailor campaigns through sponsored features, including custom playlists, co-branded music players, and Flash-in-Flash video. The team is also able to provide potential advertisers with strategic tools such as RSS feeds and an embedded music player that can be placed on Web sites across the Internet to enrich content and generate bounties through Napster's affiliate program. Promotion activations and other partner support are also available.
"As we assemble our ad sales team, we continue to seek out the most talented industry veterans to educate marketers about the engaging and interactive ways they can reach a highly-targeted demographic through Napster's free music listening service," said Brad Duea, president of Napster. "Evan and Mike both have a reputation for building web properties and developing value-add programs for sponsors, so we are very pleased they have decided to put their experience and enthusiasm to work for Napster."
Since its May launch, Napster.com has been receiving approximately three million unique visitors per month and averaging over 60 million page views. Users have been spending approximately 20 minutes on the site per visit and streaming over half a million songs per day. Such strong visitation and usage statistics have already attracted world class brands such as The Walt Disney Studios, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, MSN Rockstar, Toshiba, Maxell and the U.S. Navy.
Cowitt comes to Napster from the FOX Interactive subsidiary IGN Entertainment Inc. where he oversaw entertainment advertising sales. With over 16 years of experience at major entertainment brands including IFILM, AOL and The Walt Disney Company, Cowitt helped create marketing and media solutions that have resulted in some of the biggest deals in movie promotions and online history.
Owen joins Napster following his position at Entertainment Weekly as director of Eastern Ad Sales for EW.com, where his accomplishments included completing the largest one issue deal in the magazine's 15-year history for HBO's Rome. In previous positions with Teen People Magazine, MTV Interactive and Nickelodeon Online, he was a key contributor to developing and selling highly-successful advertising and promotions programs.
For specific information about advertising opportunities or more information about the Napster.com free music experience, please visit http://www.napster.com/.
About Napster
Napster is committed to making great music experiences more accessible to all music fans. Napster.com gives web users the power to legally listen on-demand to a massive catalog of music from major and independent labels, wherever they are on the Web -- for FREE. The Napster music subscription service offers a premium experience that includes unlimited access to CD-quality music and advanced discovery, community and programming features in an advertising-free environment. Napster To Go subscribers also enjoy unlimited transfer of music to a compatible MP3 player. Napster Light, an a la carte download store, and Napster Mobile, a hosted music service featuring artist images, ring tones and full-length songs, round out the Napster digital music lineup. Napster is headquartered in Los Angeles with sales offices in Frankfurt and London. For more information, please visit http://www.napster.com/.
Copyright (C) 2006 Napster, LLC. All rights reserved. Napster, Napster Mobile, Napster To Go and Napster Light are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Napster, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are owned by their respective owners.
Napster Contact:
Becky Farina
Napster
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