Napster to Offer Dave Matthews Albums

Napster, the online music service from Roxio Corp., plugged a major hole by adding downloadable albums from rocker Dave Matthews. The deal, which permits full-album purchases only, makes Napster and Matthews’ website the only legitimate outlets for his music until mid-August.

Analyst P.J. McNealy of American Technology Research in San Francisco said, “Scoring an exclusive deal is nice incremental momentum” for the money-losing Napster, which faces intense competition from other digital music outlets.

Coran Capshaw, manager of the Dave Matthews Band, said the band wanted to establish downloadable-music sales on its website first. “Now that we’ve done that, we’re open to working with other services,” he said.