NAPSTER'S NEW CEO: A WIN-WINBLAD SITUATION?

All the Whitesnake you can download: Priceless.

Less than week after receiving approximately $15 million in first round financing, Napster Inc. has named Hank Barry as its Interim CEO, replacing Eileen Richardson.

Barry is a partner in institutional investor Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, which led a $15 milion Series C venture capital fundung round in Napster. Barry and John Hummerwill, another partner in Hummer Winblad, will also join the Napster board of directors.

Richardson, who has served as Interim CEO for the past nine months, will stay on at Napster in an advisory role. Napster is currently being sued separately by the RIAA, Dr. Dre and Metallica regarding copyright infringement.

Meanwhile, a think tank plans to suggest measures to Congress for reducing piracy associated with the controversial song-swapping Internet company and similar online services.

The Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington, DC-based research organization for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, will propose the measures in a paper on Tuesday at a House Small Business Committee hearing. Watch this space for a Q&A with PPI chieftain Rob Atkinson.

San Mateo-based Napster has been negotiating for about four months with at least a dozen prospective institutional investors, for a first round of financing.

Hummer Winblad also has investments in, among other Net ventures, online music distributor and proprietary encoding outfit Liquid Audio and e-tailer Pets.com.

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