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` V
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`WEB & COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE music
`irgin Digital Shuts Down
`
`By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News ServiceSep 24, 2007 7:00 AM
`
`Virgin Group Ltd. will shut down its online music subscription and download service in the U.S. and U.K.
`next month, leaving one less competitor for Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store.
`
`In the U.K., Virgin Digital stopped selling tracks last Friday, and is no longer accepting new customers. As of
`Friday, only existing customers will be able to access the service, and the site will shut down for good on
`Oct. 19.
`
`The U.K. version of the site said users with more than one month of outstanding subscriptions will get a
`refund, but unused credits for song downloads should be used and won't be refunded. U.S. users of Virgin
`Digital will be able to use their credit on Napster LLC's music download service.
`
`The pending demise of Virgin Digital marks another casualty among online music stores, which have
`generally received lukewarm reception from consumers with the exception of Apple's market-leading iTunes
`service.
`
`Since Virgin Digital used digital rights management (DRM) technology from Microsoft Corp. to manage how
`songs could be played and transferred to portable devices, the service was not compatible with Apple's iPod
`line, which uses different DRM technology and file format.
`
`The Virgin Digital service allows customers to download tracks up to four more times to replace lost or
`damaged copies. Since that option will no longer be available when the store closes, the company advised
`customers who purchased tracks to back them up by burning the songs to a CD. Burning the tracks will let
`those customers re-import the tracks to the computer as MP3 files.
`
`Virgin also offered a subscription service that let people access an entire catalog of songs as long as they
`continued to pay the monthly fees. Those songs, which used Microsoft's DRM, would be unplayable if the
`person's subscription expired. Once the club closes, subscribers will also lose access to those songs. As
`part of the terms of subscription service, users were not allowed to burn those songs to CD.
`
`Virgin Digital officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the service's closure.
`
`The Virgin Digital store is not the only one to fold in the face of competition from Apple's iTunes -- or from
`
`Apple Exhibit 4149
`Apple v. SightSound Technologies
`CBM2013-00020
`Page 00001
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`illegal downloads.
`
`Last month, MTV Networks, which is owned by Viacom Inc., said it would merge its Urge music service with
`RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody service. Urge, which was a partnership between MTV and Microsoft
`launched in May 2006 that failed to effectively compete with iTunes.
`
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