The cards can be used either as gifts for those people without credit cards, and contain a unique code that surfers can use to redeem against subscriptions or song purchases on .
The cards run on a similar principle to mobile-phone top-up vouchers, with a scratch-off surface revealing a PIN that can be used to activate credits. The cards feature the famous earphone-wearing cat logo of Napster, and are being sold in Dixon starting this week, and in PC World, The Link and Currys starting in November.
Leanne Sharman, vice-president and UK general manager of Napster, said that the launch of the pre-paid cards was a major development in the online music market.
"With the retail strength of the Dixons chain behind us, we anticipate strong demand over the holiday season and in the build up to Christmas," she said.
At the same time, Starbucks revealed that it is trialling a CD-burning service in two of its US branches, which allows customers to create personalised CD compilations from a digital library of songs. In its first phase, it will be rolled out to 45 Starbucks stores in the US.
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