Steve Aoki is one of the investors in the tech firm Infinite Reality, which has purchased Napster.
The music-streaming service Napster has been sold for $207 million to the tech firm Infinite Reality.
Once a notorious music pirating platform and a thorn in the side of major labels at the turn of the millennium, Napster is now a small player in the streaming world, dwarfed by giants like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music. Despite this, Infinite Reality says it aims to revitalize Napster into “a social music platform that prioritizes active fan engagement over passive listening.”
Infinite Reality, founded in 2019 with support from music and sports celebrities such as Steve Aoki and Imagine Dragons, acquired Napster from blockchain and cryptocurrency company Algorand and Hivemind Capital Partners. Numerous companies, including retail giant Best Buy and streaming service Rhapsody, have tried and failed to reinvigorate Napster for modern music tech.
Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos, who previously led music at Roblox and was an investor in the original Napster under Bertelsmann, will continue to lead the brand as it integrates with Infinite Reality’s vision for livestreaming, e-commerce, digital community management, and AI initiatives. “The internet has evolved from desktop to mobile, from mobile to social, and now we are entering the immersive era,” Vlassopulos said in a statement. “Yet music streaming has remained largely the same.”
Napster has long been a touchstone for tech firms looking to disrupt established media industries, much like co-founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker did in the early days.
20 years ago Fanning and Parker had predicted the rise of streaming model for the music industry.
Joseph Menn, author of All The Rave, a history of Napster, told The Times last year that “Napster created this whole wave of antihero entrepreneurs,” who recognized music as a gateway to valuable marketing opportunities. “Napster knew more about the customer than the labels did. They had access to your music collection, they saw what people downloaded. They could say ‘Bobby likes Led Zeppelin, and he’s curious about AC/DC, here is his email address, and you can tell him when AC/DC has a new album out.’ That was the big value proposition.”
The sale comes at a pivotal moment for tech and streaming services, as many younger consumers are scaling back on expensive streaming subscriptions amid inflation and recession concerns, instead turning to ad-supported free services or content created by amateurs.
