Napster Hires Former AOL, BMG Exec Hilbers as CEO

NEW YORK — Napster Inc. said Tuesday that it recruited a former executive from BMG and America Online to take over the reins of its besieged song-swapping service, which remains suspended as a result of a legal dispute with the major record labels and music publishers.

The new chief executive, Konrad Hilbers, said one of his top priorities is settling Napster’s crippling legal dispute with the music industry and striking deals with the major labels and music publishers.

Hank Barry, Napster’s longtime interim chief executive, said that the change could help on that front. “He can come in and distance himself from me” and the company’s history, “and that’s good,” Barry said.

Hilbers had been chief administrative officer at BMG Entertainment for six months before joining Napster, and an executive at AOL Europe for five years before that.

At a news conference, Hilbers said Napster probably will revive free file-swapping before rolling out its fee-based service late this summer. But no date has been set, he and Barry said, because the company isn’t satisfied yet that its new anti-piracy technology is stable and capable of handling a high volume of activity.