Posted on 03/26/2025 11:00:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
Napster (Yes, that Napster) has just been sold for $207 million, leading an entire generation of people to simultaneously ask: "Wait, was Napster still around?"
The popular and original mainstream illegal music file-sharing platform that caused absolute mayhem for record labels in the early 2000s was sold to tech company Infinite Reality on Tuesday for a whopping $200+ million figure, as the startup said that it hopes of transform the streaming service into a music Metaverse of sorts.
What's wild about the whole thing is that Napster's website was shut down 24 years ago after being sued into oblivion by record labels and bands like Metallica due to copyright infringement, yet still went for such a substantial sum all these years later.
NAPSTER FIRST SHUT DOWN IN 2001
Make no mistake about it. The reason why Napster was just sold for such a high price was because of the brand's recognition. For a startup company like Infinite Reality to immediately have a known name like Napster seems like a gamble worth taking. They probably would have spent a good chunk of that anyway in marketing alone just to end up in the same spot where they are now with no further upside like Napster could bring - especially if they bring it back in a witty way and play on the fact that people are shocked the company even still exists.
The only issue with the new Napster is, unfortunately, the most important part of all - the actual business side of it.
Infinite Reality has plans to turn Napster into a virtual 3D concert space that will allow fans to attend shows as well as purchase physical merchandise and artists to release exclusive tracks and more. Sounds cool I guess, but pardon my hesitancy on anything Meta-related these days, considering every time a company has jumped onboard the Meta world it's essentially been a disaster and a major financial loss.
"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," Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos said in a statement.
Wait, what happened to Sean Parker played by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network? Is he no longer the CEO?
Regardless, we'll see if Napster can shake up the Metaverse like they did the music industry more than two decades ago!
DO YOU THINK THE NEW NAPSTER WILL WORK? TWEET ME: @TheGunzShow
Just think, streaming has just about killed off DVD’s and CD’s. Wouldn’t be surprised to see streaming rates start shooting up soon...
But these younger folks don’t understand actually owning something...
I have talked to many of them and they don’t have a clue...
200 million is just 1/5000th of a Trillion dollars, the value of several large tech companies.
just a drop in the bucket, let’s not pretend 200 million is a lot
Not sure what this is, something like that bitecoin thing?
It used to be a music pirate website...........
It’s a lot to pay for a name........
Ah, music, I remember that.
That name reminded me of some frreper name I guess, something about naps.
Napscoordinator?
Could be, figured it was a kindergarten teacher.
I go to Youtube and use the free app called: 4K Video Downloader Plus to download music and videos.
https://www.4kdownload.com/products/videodownloader-42
Just copy the web address and then in the program click on the Paste button and download to where you want the file to be.
I will use the free video editors like the free DaVinci Resolve to clip the beginning or end of the music / videos that people will add that are not part of the file I want. Then I use the free Handbrake to reduce the file size.
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