Napster to reinvent itself as Web3 music company following acquisition

Napster, a formerly well-known music streaming service from the early 2000s that went bankrupt due to offering free file-sharing of copyrighted music that led to a series of copyright infringement lawsuits, is seeking to relaunch as a Web3 business.

The decision was made after crypto investment company Hivemind Capital and Algorand have acquired music streaming platform Napster for an undisclosed amount.

Several others will also participate in the acquisition, including Skybridge, Arrington Capital and G20 Ventures. Emmy Lovell has been named interim CEO. Lovell has previously worked with Warner Music Group, EMI Music and the BBC.

As per Hivemind’s announcement on Twitter, it will work with Algorand it would ‘revolutionize the music industry by bringing blockchain and Web3 to artists and fans.’

To start with, the partners are working on the launch of 10 billion $NAPSTER tokens through its foundation to serve as incentives for artists, fans and developers to participate in the Napster ecosystem. 

The company will also release a series of open-source smart contracts anyone can contribute to, create assets and take the asset through its lifecycle, including order, list and match making. 

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