41.   Downloading music online is more practical and more fun.

42.   Each has experimented with selling downloadable music, but so far has been unable to present a popular alternative to the free online music available with Napster.

43.   EMusic gives Universal, a subsidiary of French media conglomerate Vivendi Universal, more components to add to its evolving online music plans.

44.   Earlier this month, Napster, the most popular and notorious of digital music sites, agreed to develop an online music service with the BMG music group.

45.   Every summer at the Jupiter Media Metrix annual Internet music conference, a parade of so-called experts expound on the future of online music.

46.   Exactly which company winds up prevailing in the online music wars is a question worth hundreds of millions of dollars in coming years.

47.   For example, he said the record industry launched MusicNet and Pressplay, two online music subscription services, late last year without consulting retailers.

48.   For online music executives like Kearby of Liquid Audio, it is too early to make predictions about whether Napster can be reinvented.

49.   For that reason, the acquisition instantly puts Bertelsmann, which is based in Gutersloh, Germany, at the top of the online music business.

50.   He said a major sticking point with the online music subscription service continues to be the inability to transfer music to a portable device.