Napster has been given a new lease on life as the peer-to-peer file-sharing platform turned music streaming service has been acquired for $207 million.
According to CNBC, Napster was bought Tuesday by 3D technology company Infinite Reality. This acquisition will give the music platform a new life as both a streaming service and a metaverse platform. Infinite Reality plans to implement social features into Napster, allowing artists and labels to create 3D rooms for fans to enjoy virtual concerts and listening parties. It will also create e-commerce channels for artists to sell physical and virtual merchandise.
“When we think about clients who have audiences — influencers, creators — I think it’s very important that they have a connected space that’s around music and musical communities,” CEO John Acunto said in an interview with CNBC. “We just don’t see anybody in the streaming space creating spaces for music.”
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Virtual concerts have already been happening in video games like Fortnite and PUBG Mobile, as well as on social media platforms like TikTok and Meta’s AmazeVR app, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic forcing artists to cancel in-person performances and hosting them online instead to comply with social distancing policies at the time. Spotify added a virtual concert feature in 2021 and gave fans access to performances to their favorite bands after nearly a year of tests, but Napster never kept up with the trend. This oversight, as well as the licensing rights Napster had to stream over 110 million songs, gave Infinite Reality all the more reason to purchase the platform and bring it to the metaverse age.
“I think there’s no better name than Napster to disrupt,” Acunto said.
Napster’s $207 million deal with Infinite Reality comes nearly a decade after it relaunched as a music streaming service as a result of Rhapsody changing its name in 2016 to maintain relevancy. By then, Napster had already been bought and revived a few times by different companies, including Best Buy and Rhapsody. Napster was founded in 1999 by Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, allowing users to share MP3 files with each other. After a series of piracy lawsuits by music industry figures, including heavy metal band Metallica, Napster ended its file-sharing operations in 2001.