Napster, the model that ushered in an period of rampant music piracy earlier than later being reborn as a subscription music streaming platform, has been offered for $207 million.
Tech firm Infinite Actuality introduced Tuesday morning that it purchased Napster within the nine-figure deal, hoping to additional remodel Napster from merely a streaming service right into a extra social-first music platform the place followers can extra instantly have interaction with music and artists.
To be clear, the present iteration of Napster is way faraway from the model’s notorious origin as a peer-to-peer file alternate. The unique Napster went underneath within the early 2000s, and the streaming service Rhapsody purchased the model in 2011, resurrecting the title because it rebranded as Napster in 2016. Napster isn’t the one controversial music service of its period that’s resurfaced for different music makes use of; Limewire additionally made a comeback lately, presently providing an AI music technology platform together with an AI picture generator.
For the reason that Rhapsody rebrand, the Napster had change into a kind of acquisition magnet to corporations pursuing tech traits that had been en vogue previously a number of years. MelodyVR, a digital actuality firm, bought Napster in 2020 through the pandemic for $70 million, hoping to show the platform right into a hybrid music and live-streaming platform. By 2022, the cryptocurrency corporations Hivemind and Algorand purchased Napster, specializing in a web3 and blockchain play.
Infinite Actuality, for its half, described itself in a press launch as “an innovation firm powering the subsequent technology of digital media and ecommerce by prolonged actuality (XR), synthetic intelligence (AI), and different immersive applied sciences.”
Infinite Actuality isn’t the primary firm previously a number of years hoping to tackle the notorious Napster title and attempt to morph the model to shake up the music enterprise, and up to now, none have panned out. Nonetheless, the corporate’s broader objective to extra instantly monetize fandom does mirror an growing line of thought within the music trade, as extra stakeholders are focusing choices for “superfans” who’ve proven outsized demand for content material from their favourite artists.
Infinite Actuality hopes to make a splash, citing choices comparable to bodily and digital merch gross sales, AI-powered customer support, and metaverse-like digital areas for followers to congregate for concert events or listening events. Infinite Actuality additionally owns a Drone Racing League and esports groups that compete in League of Legends and Name of Responsibility; the corporate mentioned it’d be utilizing these platforms to push the music too.
“I firmly consider that the artist-fan relationship is evolving, with followers craving hyper-personalized, intimate entry to their favourite artists, whereas artists are trying to find revolutionary methods to deepen connections with followers, and entry new streams of income,” John Acunto, Co-Founder and CEO of Infinite Actuality, mentioned in an announcement. “We’re creating the final word music platform the place artists can thrive within the subsequent wave of digital disruption.”
Per the discharge, to this point the Napster streaming service has paid out greater than $1 billion in royalties to artists and songwriters. Jon Vlassopulos, who joined Napster as CEO in 2022, will proceed to serve in his chief govt function. Previous to becoming a member of Napster, Vlassopulos was the top of music for the favored online game Roblox, the place he helped launch digital concert events for artists together with Lil Nas X and Twenty One Pilots.
“Napster revolutionized digital music within the nineties, and now, with Infinite Actuality, we’re able to do it once more,” Vassopulos mentioned in an announcement. “Think about stepping right into a digital venue to look at an unique present with mates, chat along with your favourite artist in their very own digital hangout as they drop their new single, and be capable to instantly purchase their unique digital and bodily merch. With Infinite Actuality’s experience in immersive 3D expertise, we’ll remodel Napster right into a next-generation platform the place followers don’t simply pay attention on their very own—they expertise music in completely new methods.”
