Free download offer designed to pull in more paying subscribers

Napster is going back to its roots and will start giving away free music once again.

The peer-to-peer site is starting a new offer where users can download tracks for free, but are limited to listening to each song only five times.

The company is hoping that the offer will encourage new subscribers to join, and that the extra website traffic will generate better advertising revenue.

"Napster was born of the idea of eliminating all barriers to discovering, enjoying and sharing music and of putting the power in the hands of fans," said Napster chairman Chris Gorog.

"With a vision to empower music fans in a legal environment, with an open, all-inclusive platform, we are very excited to share our new free music experience at Napster.com."

The firm is also adding new applications to its existing services. A 'Narchive' has been set up so that fans can add details about the music and artists they like, while a new NapsterLinks service allows people to embed music in web pages and blogs.