Napster acquires music NFT marketplace Mint Songs
Business News Deals Digital
By Chris Cooke | Published Thursday, February 16, 2023
The brand new Napster with Web3 ambitions has acquired a Web3 startup to help achieve its Web3 dreams with some Web3 fun times.
The startup is music NFT marketplace Mint Songs, which actually wound up its operations in September last yearbut can still apparently provide Napster with some useful tools and insights to help push what it calls Napster 3.0.
Napster — the music streaming service that evolved from the download service that launched using the branding of the P2P file-sharing network that everyone still thinks of when you say “Napster” — announced plans to reinvent itself as a music-centric Web3 service when it was acquired by new owners in May last year.
It then announced the appointment of Jon Vlassopulos as CEO in September, having previously been Global Head Of Music at Roblox.
He said when he got that job: “With the use of Web3 technology, we now have an unprecedented opportunity to connect artists and fans in new, innovative ways, while making the fan experience more fun and social and creating new revenue streams for artists” .
Of the Mint Songs purchase, Vlassopulos now says, “We’re in an unprecedented era of innovation in the digital music space, and it feels like more music start-ups have been formed in the last two to three years than in the previous 20”.
“It’s inspiring to see so many talented teams pushing to create a music ecosystem that’s better for artists and fans, and we’re excited to welcome one of the most impressive Web3 music startups, Mint Songs, which the newest member of the Napster family”.
Mint Songs co-founder and CTO Garrett Hughes will now advise Napster on the development of its Web3 experiences, while the startup’s chief product officer Nate Pham will play a hands-on role in Napster’s Web3 adventure.
Vlassopulos continues, “Garrett and the team have done groundbreaking work to help thousands of artists get started with Web3, reach fans in new creative ways through collectibles and unlock significant new revenue streams”.
Hughes himself says: “When we looked for a partner who could take what we’ve built over the last two years and give artists a true marketplace for their assets where millions of fans are already active, it became very clear that Jon and Napster have the vision of to finally take Web3 music to the mainstream”.
“Our goal all along has been to create deep, engaging and innovative ways for artists to connect with fans that also give them an opportunity to monetize that fandom,” he adds. “Conversely, we see a demand from fans for a music service that offers more than just on-demand music and podcasts, which makes Napster’s ambitious goals all the more attractive.”
Given that when everyone was talking about VR a few years ago, Napster merged with a VR company, and then last year – when everyone was talking about Web3 and NFTs – Napster announced that it was now a Web3 company, I expected the latter announcement to unveil Napster, the music AI company.
Kind of impressed that they’re sticking with the Web3 thing. For the time being anyway.
