Pressplay later was the name of an
online music store from 2002 - 2003 created as a
joint venture between
Universal Music Group and
Sony Music Entertainment. The two record labels provided music via subscription for pressplay along with
BMG,
EMI,
Warner Music Group and various
independent labels. It was branded for multiple services, most notably
Yahoo.com.
Roxio acquired the service on May 19, 2003 and used it as a base to relaunch the
Napster music service.
The
Pressplay music service initially received a lot of criticism for its complicated licensing model, and for offering a selection of artists and titles that was not large enough to lure consumers away from free yet illegal offerings. This earned
Pressplay and rival
MusicNet the 9th place in
PC World's list of the "25 Worst Tech Products of All Time", stating that "the services' stunningly brain-dead features showed that the record companies still didn't get it".
Interestingly, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment had at licensed at least a portion of their catalog to other, more successful online music stores such as
Streamwaves' Christian music service HigherWaves,
FullAudio and Streamwaves' full product.