Dell is following hot on the heels of HP’s announcement last week and offering access to free music with the purchase of a new laptop. Unlike HP’s download-only tracks Dell has decided to go down the subscription route and is teaming up with Napster for the promotion.

With selected laptops customers will be given a complimentary subscription to the Napster Unlimited service. With that you get the following for 12 months:

• Access to 8 million music tracks
• Ability to play then online from any PC
• Unlimited downloads on up to 3 PCs
• 60 DRM-free tracks to download and keep

As this is a subscription service at the end of the 12 months if you do not decide to carry on with a paid subscription you don’t get to continue listening to any of the music you downloaded other than the 60 tracks.

Dell is hoping that such an offer will make its Inspiron and Studio laptops more desirable with the service being easily accessible from pre-installed software called Dell Dock and a Napster desktop shortcut. Dell Dock is used to setup the free subscription period before access is possible through the Napster link.

Advertising and availability of the offer by Dell is expected to appear before the end of October. It is thought Dell laptops in Best Buy will carry the promotion first followed by direct sales through the Dell U.S. website.

Read more at Pocket-lint and MusicWeek

Matthew’s Opinion

Just a note that this may be a slightly tweaked version of Napster Unlimited where by the streaming is available, but the downloads to 3 PCs aren’t. Until Dell confirm the promotion on its website we can assume it is the full Napster Unlimited offering and I hope that it is as it makes for a great year’s worth of music access.

This is a much better offer than the one being HP is running across Asia. The problem I had with the HP promotion is the fact it is only 1,000 songs wrapped in DRM which you lose after a year except for 120 you get to keep. That’s a limited music selection and a sudden loss of access after 12 months. With Dell and Napster that’s not the case; if you like the service then start paying for it and continue to enjoy all the music you downloaded.

I think this helps Napster more than it helps Dell. If someone uses the Napster Unlimited service for the full 12 months it’s quite likely they will subscribe as it is obviously of use to them. If you don’t like it then just don’t use it and don’t sign up after a year.

The subscription option is likely much cheaper for Dell to get on to laptops because there is no music licensing sales involved, it is just paying for access to a subscription service for a year. In fact, Napster may not be collecting any revenue from Dell for this and instead hoping that lots of customers will sign-up and start paying it directly in 12 months.

Of all the bloatware we see added to laptops this is definitely one of the more useful. You can keep the 60-day Office trials, hobbled video and photo editing suites, and “helpful” utilities. But give me a 12-month music service subscription and I might just give it a go.