Los Angeles - Digital music service provider Napster (NASD: NAPS) announced on Monday that it will begin selling songs exclusively in the MP3 format beginning in the second quarter.

The company had previously sold songs in Microsoft's (NASD: MSFT) protected WMA format, and will continue to utilize that format for its subscription-based offerings.

"As there is now a critical mass of support for MP3s we are very pleased to announce we will soon offer our customers the user-friendly MP3 file format throughout our product line-up and provide the top-tier content our users expect from Napster," said chairman and CEO Chris Gorog.

"The ubiquity and cross-platform compatibility of MP3s should create a more level playing field for music services and hardware providers and result in greater ease of use and broader adoption of digital music."

Los Angeles-based Napster claims 750,000 subscribers for its various services.

With recent announcements from Warner Music and Sony BMG, all four of the major labels are now selling at least some of their catalogs in the unprotected MP3 format.

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