Napster Just Became a Web3 Company
Napster is best remembered as the peer-to-peer audio sharing network that scared the hell out of the music industry, but now it's going in a new direction filled with crypto, blockchain, NFTs, and Web3.
As The Verge reports(Opens in a new window), the Napster Group has been acquired by two companies called Hivemind(Opens in a new window) and Algorand(Opens in a new window), with the acquisition being confirmed in a post on Linkedin(Opens in a new window) by Hivemind founder Matt Zhang. In the post Zhang says, "Dear friends, we are excited to share that we've taken Napster Group private, and to bring the iconic music brand to web3."
Hivemind is a crypto-focused investment company with an interest in blockchain technology and digital assets ecosystems, where as Algorand is a blockchain technology firm which, according to the company, is already being used by more than 2,000 organizations globally.
It's not yet clear exactly what the future holds for the Napster brand, but Zhang says, "Music x Web3 is one of the most exciting spaces we've come across."
The initial plan is to work with interim Napster CEO Emmy Lovell(Opens in a new window), who has 14 years of experience working at the BBC, Bauer Media, EMI Music, Warner Music Group, and a year already at Napster to call upon in plotting a future course under the new ownership. Don't be surprised if Napster follows a similar path to LimeWire now.
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