The once-iconic music-sharing platform Napster simply bought for $207 million, according to reporting by CNBC. An organization known as Infinite Actuality ponied up the money. What might Napster provide in 2025 to warrant such a price ticket? Infinite Actuality CEO John Acunto says it’ll be used for advertising and marketing within the metaverse. In different phrases, a platform from 1999 will probably be used as a part of a know-how that seemingly peaked in 2021. That sounds about proper.
Extra particularly, the corporate plans on creating digital 3D areas for music followers to attend concert events and listening events, along with making a gross sales platform for musicians and labels to promote merch. This isn’t the worst concept on the planet, as attending these sorts of shared occasions might be my favourite side of VR.
"Probably the most legendary collab?! Infinite Actuality has acquired iconic on-line music model @Napster.
With this acquisition, we're increasing and reimagining Napster, empowering artists with new viewers monetization and engagement capabilities, underpinned by iR’s #immersive… pic.twitter.com/L4Fig7QFct— Infinite Actuality (@Infinite_iR) March 25, 2025
“Once we take into consideration purchasers who’ve audiences — influencers, creators — I feel it’s crucial that they’ve a linked house that’s round music and musical communities,” Acunto stated. “We simply don’t see anyone within the streaming house creating areas for music.”
Napster holds quite a few licenses to stream tens of millions of songs, which is what made it a beautiful prospect to Infinite Actuality. The corporate says its model of Napster will “disrupt legally.”
Present Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos says that the acquisition will enable artists to create “loopy environments which might be actually solely restricted by their imaginations.” For example, he described a reggae artist who would possibly get pleasure from a digital seaside atmosphere. Acunto provides that it’ll be like “Clubhouse occasions a trillion.” He’s referring to the digital occasions app that turned widespread throughout COVID, however ultimately petered out.
Infinite Actuality has been on a shopping for spree the final couple of years. Along with Napster, it bought the Drone Racing League, the metaverse advertising and marketing platform Landvault and the VR buying platform Obsess.
As for Napster, it began in 1999 and took the world by storm, creating an easy-peasy solution to steal music. It solely took a few years for mounting authorized battles to catch as much as the platform and it declared chapter in 2001.
Nonetheless, that was only the start. The software program firm Roxio bought the platform in 2002 and relaunched it as a reputable e-commerce enterprise that bought digital music information. In 2008, Greatest Purchase got here calling and scooped it up. The retail big solely held on to Napster for a couple of years earlier than promoting to Rhapsody in 2011.
Rhapsody tried to make Napster a family identify in Europe for the subsequent decade earlier than a consortium of blockchain firms, led by Hivemind and Algorand, purchased it in 2022. These firms had plans to do some form of NFT-based nonsense, as a result of “music x web3 is among the most fun areas.” That didn’t work and, effectively, right here we’re. Right here’s to a different 25 years of being handed round like a sizzling potato.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/leisure/music/napster-just-sold-for-207-million-154432315.html?src=rss
