Pirating pioneer Napster sells for $207M with plans for music metaverse
26 Marzo 2025 - 3:39AM
Cointelegraph
Artificial intelligence startup Infinite Reality has acquired
the music-pirating app turned music streaming service Napster in a
$207 million deal and plans to add a music-focused
metaverse.
Infinite Reality said in a
March 25 statement that Napster would offer “branded 3D virtual
spaces” to allow virtual
concerts and “social listening parties” along with the ability
to offer virtual merchandise.
“Imagine stepping into a virtual venue to watch an exclusive
show with friends, chat with your favorite artist in their own
virtual hangout as they drop their new single, and be able to
directly buy their exclusive digital and physical merch,” said
Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos, who will continue in his role amid the
acquisition.
“The internet has evolved from desktop to mobile, from mobile to
social, and now we are entering the immersive era,” he added.
Infinite Reality added that it also plans for Napster to allow
musicians to use AI customer and community management agents and
analytics dashboards to track fan behavior and cross-promotion with
its other entertainment properties, such as Esports teams.
Napster’s latest repurposing
Napster was a pioneer in piracy, launching in 1999 as a
peer-to-peer (P2P) filing-sharing service mostly for music. It
shuttered in 2001, buried by a court order after a wave of
copyright infringement lawsuits.
The now-bankrupt company sold its brand, which was relaunched as
a music-streaming service before bouncing between owners for the
next 20 years. The blockchain firm Algorand and crypto investment
firm Hivemind most recently bought it in 2022.
Related: Here’s what musicians actually think of
tokenizing content in Web3
Napster had made several moves in the Web3 space,
announcing
plans in June 2022 to launch its own Napster token on the
Algorand
blockchain that could be used to buy music subscriptions and
other content. The brand also bought Web3 music startup Mint Songs
in February 2023.
Source: Napster
John Acunto, co-founder and CEO of Infinite Reality, said the
team hopes to lead an “internet industry shift from a flat 2D
clickable web to a 3D conversational one.”
Infinite Reality says the acquisition of Napster is slated to
close in a few weeks. According to the firm, it hopes to evolve the
Napster brand to become the leading immersive music platform for
artists, fans and curators through audience monetization and
engagement capabilities.
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$207M with plans for music metaverse
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