MP3 STARS TESTIFY July 14 2000 dotmusic.com Napster has hired its third top record company man. Keith Bernstein, 34, has been named vice president of operations at Napster. Previously a senior director of operations at Universal Music's Global-E division, Bernstein was responsible for overseeing the company's downloadable music strategy. Bernstein's particular skills are in ensuring that artists' royalties and rights be maintained throughout the secure downloading process. He was also a co-founder of the Royalty Review Council, which monitors data transactions during the downloading of music, software and so on. Judging by the recruitment page at Napster.com, Bernstein's duties will now include "operation and capacity planning, security analysis, disaster/recovery planning... and system administration". Napster has already brought in two bosses with music industry experience: investor-CEO Hank Barry and ex- A&M executive Milt Olin. Head lawyer David Boies, famed as the man who brought Microsoft to its knees in an American Government antitrust case, also recently jumped aboard. In a recent court filing, Napster attacks Universal, arguing "if they can control the method of distribution, they can control the business model." The documents report Universal as stating that Napster, under UMGıs control, would "provide consumers with a front end for purchasing our content". That a leading music industry techbology man has deserted to Napster might lead some to suspect Universal's digital downloading scheme is not going smoothly. "Napster is at the centre of the digital music revolution" said Bernstein, "and it can bring great benefits to artists and the industry," It's certainly a public relations coup for Napster, who are keen to show that they can become a powerful and accepted part of the music industry. And seeing as they are still actively recruiting a large number of staff, Napster must be hopeful that they wonıt be shut down on July 26 when an injunction request is decided. comment on this article e-mail this to a friend start a discussion [about i-drive] writing index thoughts dotmusic index musicbank index Problems? Questions? Suggestions? Contact me: mail@tobyslater.com back to top back to home page

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