Napster Acquired by Infinite Reality for $207 Million
NEW YORK — Napster, a brand with a complicated history, having once been synonymous with music piracy before its relaunch as a subscription service, has been sold to Infinite Reality for $207 million. The announcement was made on Tuesday by the tech startup, which intends to transform the streaming service into a social music platform, aiming to create new opportunities for artists to connect with fans and better monetize their work.
“The internet has evolved from desktop to mobile, from mobile to social, and now we are entering the immersive era. Yet, music streaming has remained largely the same. It’s time to reimagine what’s possible,” said Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos in a recent blog post.
Infinite Reality’s plans to modernize Napster include the provision of virtual 3D spaces for concert attendance, also facilitating sales opportunities for musicians and labels through digital and physical merchandise. The platform promises to provide artists with more detailed metrics and analytics to better understand user behavior.
“We can think of no better use case for our technology than putting it in the hands of music artists who are constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Amish Shah, Chief Business Officer at Infinite Reality.
Napster was originally launched in 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, establishing itself as a pioneering peer-to-peer file-sharing application. Its initial run ended in the early 2000s due to legal action from the record industry and the rock band Metallica, centered around issues of copyright infringement. The Napster brand was later acquired by Rhapsody in 2011 and relaunched as a music streaming service.
