All the major tech media outlets reported today that Napster cut 30% of its workforce. A CNET.com article said tonight that Napster, has come out to staunchly deny such layoffs occurred, citing the departure of 10 middle managers as redundant employees who’s jobs were eliminated as the company continues on its growth path.

Earlier this week, the popular digital music online publication, Digital Music News, reported Napster was considering layoffs among other options, including the possibility of selling off the business, while identifying Real Networks as a potential suitor. In a widely distributed statement to online media outlets, Napster said, “Consolidating the Napster subscription service with our new Napster.com initiative has resulted in approximately 10 middle management redundancies world-wide, and no additional reductions are contemplated”.

“Napster projects its headcount will actually increase over the coming year as our new Napster.com products enter the marketplace. Rumors of major or significant layoffs were misleading and greatly exaggerated, and efforts to sell the company are patently untrue,” it said.

This report comes on the heels of a Reuters news article I posted in yesterday’s column surrounding the buzz at this month’s MIDEM conference of an oversaturation of digital download companies in the marketplace. It remains to be seen how many can survive while the industry continues to adapt to a new way of doing business and Apple’s iTunes has a lock on the download marketplace, with the power to continue to set single’s pricing at $.99 per download in the United States.

Netmix founder, Tony Zeoli is an accomplished DJ and currently works in Product Development and User Experience Design for Zaah Technologies in Farmingdale, NY.  Netmix founder, Tony Zeoli, is an avid blogger and DJ. His day job is in Product Development and User Experience Design for Zaah Technologies. In his spare time, he likes to work on electronic dance music, play basketball and develop his digital photography skills. Once in a while, he indugles in a peanut butter and fluff sandwich with an ice cold glass of low-fat milk.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2006 at 1:17 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.