Roxio Inc. bought the Napster brand name and feline logo at a bankruptcy auction two years ago and with the acquisition of another music service, pressplay, relaunched the once-renegade file-swapping pioneer as a legal music service last October.

Roxio has shed its CD-burning software business and plans to concentrate solely on selling music over the Web. It will adopt Napster as its corporate name, trading under a new ticker symbol.

The pure-play move will mark Napster's birth as the name of a public company, but more importantly, arm the company with resources to help survive the rough-and-tumble as other deep-pocketed, powerful rivals enter the crowded online music space.

In the past two weeks, Microsoft Corp. debuted its online music service, and Yahoo Inc. acquired online jukebox provider Musicmatch Inc. EMI Group's Virgin is among those expected to soon join the fray, which already includes the pioneer of legitimate downloads and the market leader, Apple Computer Inc.

Roxio's sale of its software business to Sonic Solutions for $80 million in cash and stocks will give Napster a cash base of more than $100 million once the deal closes, expected by year's end.

Analysts say Napster has its work cut out.

Napster's key strategy is to ramp up its subscription service, which costs users $9.95 a month for unlimited access to more than 750,000 songs.

"The consumer has to see that it's a better way, not just a different way, to get their music," said Mike McGuire, analyst with Gartner G2 market research firm.