Virgin Group announced plans to shut down its online music subscription and download service in the U.S. and U.K. next month.
As of Friday only existing customers in the U.K will be able to access the subscription service, and the site will shut down for good on Oct. 19, meaning subscription-based users will no longer have access to any of their downloaded music. Virgin also stopped selling song downloads Friday.
The company said that U.S. users can use their account credit on Napster's download service.
Virgin used Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) technology, which made its services incompatible with Apple's iPods.
With the current economic climate, wireless operators face shrinking marketing budgets and reduced consumer spending.
Globally, the credit crunch is very much alive, and operators will be tightening their belts into the foreseeable future by putting off capital purchases.
