Napster Acquires NFT Marketplace Mint Songs – Billboard
Napster announced its acquisition of Mint Songs, a music NFT marketplace that aims to help artists establish a thriving Web3 presence, on Wednesday (Feb. 15). The acquisition brings together a streaming service with a platform focused on creating digital collectibles.
Jon VlassopoulosCEO of Napster, said in a statement that Mint Songs “has 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.”
“We feel the natural next step for the Napster service is to include collectibles that fans can get as rewards for engaging with artists they love or that they can buy to collect and share,” he added. Forbes. “We already have hundreds of thousands of artist stores where our fans go to listen to music every day, so adding collectibles is very contextual in the fan experience.”
Garrett Hughes, co-founder and CTO of Mint Songs, said in a statement that Napster has “the vision to finally bring 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 continued. “Conversely, we see a demand from fans for a music service to offer more than just on-demand music and podcasts, which makes Napster’s ambitious goals all the more attractive.”
mint songs Nathan Pham will join Napster to lead Web3 product initiatives, while Hughes will serve as an advisor to the company and “work closely with Vlassopulos to integrate Mint Songs’ technology into the Napster platform,” according to the acquisition announcement.
Last year, Napster was acquired by a couple of companies with Web3 experience: Hivemind and Algorand. Vlassopulos, who had spent nearly three years at Roblox, took over as CEO of Napster in September. “We want to bring the community together and enable the artists, with the data we have, to activate their communities around things like access to physical events and digital experiences,” he said at the time. Napster then launched Napster Ventures with the purpose of acquiring Web3 music startups.
Matt Zhang, founder and managing partner of Hivemind, applauded the acquisition of Mint Songs on Wednesday. “We’re excited for Napster to be a key player in the music Web3 ecosystem, and acquiring Mint Songs is a great foundational step,” he said in a statement. “The combination of Napster’s continued innovation that currently drives the platform together with Mint Songs’ technological IP and expertise will help drive Web3 innovation for the music industry.”
