Around the turn of the century, Napster was the place for online file sharing (or piracy, as the music industry would call it). If you were a millennial or Gen X-er at the time, you'll remember Napster as the renegade brand that introduced the world to listening to music online. Or, perhaps you remember Justin Timberlake's take on Napster founder Sean Parker in The Social Network. The brand played an important and controversial role in early internet history, until it was sued out of existence.
Now it's back, but it sounds like something else entirely.
A Floridian startup called Infinite Reality has apparently decided to rebrand itself as Napster Corporation, Forbes reported. The decision was reportedly announced on a Zoom meeting with investors earlier this month, though it should be noted that the company's website is still filled with Infinite Reality branding. This came a couple of months after Infinite Reality purchased Napster, which has existed as a paid music streaming app with several different parent companies for the past several years.
The Forbes report doesn't go into great detail about what this new Napster Corporation plans on making for consumers, though it noted that the company is looking to provide "AI-powered digital experiences." When Infinite Reality bought Napster earlier this year, it pledged to turn the brand into a purveyor of 3D virtual spaces for music performances, a la Fortnite. Right now, the only Napster-branded part of the Infinite Reality website is for "Napster Spaces," a service that purports to help businesses make their websites more immersive via AI.
It's all very vague and buzzword-y (Forbes mentioned that Infinite Reality had been marketing itself as a metaverse company until recently), in other words. Most importantly, it doesn't seem to have much of anything to do with Napster beyond the name. Admittedly, it is a more memorable and recognizable name than Infinite Reality.
Let's just hope Metallica doesn't find out about this.
