Rebellion. Excitement. Community.
Napster.
When we sat down with Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos in December, he took us through a time machine of the platform’s evolution and demise that demonstrated how early it was in predicting the future age of digitization, while scaring the absolute sh** out of the RIAA and music industry.
Ultimately, Napster’s return as a digital collectibles marketplace in June 2020 left us with one major question – how can today’s younger generation reconnect with this “Napster 2.0” in today’s reversion back to self-expression that takes us back to the early days of ringtone culture?
On Wednesday, Napster took its first steps in building out its future Web3 ecosystem as it announced that it acquired Mint Songs, a leading digital collectibles marketplace that helps music artists build Web3 native communities as well as minting songs and providing exclusive art for fans to own and trade.
Having previously raised $4.3 million USD, Mint Songs’ investor portfolio includes Freestyle Capital and Castle Island Ventures. The platform has worked with several Web3-native artists including, but not limited to Gramatik, Mark de Clive-Lowe, and Black Dave.
And leading Napster’s Web3 initiatives is its former head of product, Nate Pham, who previously held senior product roles at Pandora and UnitedMasters. Mint Song’s co-founder and CTO, Garrett Hughes will also stay on in an advisory role.
Together, Vlassopulos and Hughes will work to integrate Mint Songs’ technology into Napster’s platform.
“We are in an unprecedented era of innovation in the digital music space and it feels like there have been more music startups formed in the last two to three years than in the previous 20,” Vlassopulos said in Wednesday’s announcement.
He added that Hughes and the Mint Songs team have done “groundbreaking work” in helping thousands of artists get their start in Web3 by providing the accessibility necessary through collectibles that help unlock new revenue streams.
Vlassopulos, whose history with Napster dates back 20+ years, when he was part of the corporate team at Bertelsmann who loaned $50 million USD to Napster and offered a $1 billion USD advance to the labels in an attempt to legitimize the P2P music service.
Last May, Napster was acquired by Algorand and Hivemind Capital Partners, followed by Vlassopulos joining as the music platform’s CEO in September 2022.
He is also credited with building Roblox’s groundbreaking music initiatives as its former Vice President and Global Head of Music, setting the standard for virtual concerts and music world that have allowed fans to participate in the creative process alongside artists.
Now that Mint Songs is under Napster’s umbrella, the question centers around how Napster intends to truly set itself apart from every other music platform in the Web3 space.
Vlassopulos told Hypemoon that the answer lies in introducing Web3 functionality into the core service – something that has been on Napster’s roadmap for some time.
“We feel that the next natural 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 purchase to collect and share. Given Mint Songs has already built and operated one of the leading collectibles marketplaces, the acquisition will allow us to get this new feature rolled out to our user base quickly so that we can offer our global artist and label partners an easy way to mint and present collectibles to their fans and earn a new revenue stream,” Vlassopulos added.
One of the biggest detractors from the space right now is that there are too many platforms in play, but very few actually have genuine accessibility in mind that operates to actually include the average consumer – rather than pricing them out.
This, according to Vlassopulos, has been a core focus of Mint Songs, which is why the platform removed the need for complex blockchain wallets for both fans and artists.
“That same approach will be important to help make these same Web3-based items available for the masses as Mint Songs’ technology and IP is integrated into Napster’s platform,” Vlassopulos explained.
As for how Napster and Mint Songs will provide that “accessibility,” Vlassopulos says that this is a much bigger conversation that he would like to have with Hypemoon later this year, where he could bring Pham and Hughes into the conversation.
As for now, welcome to Web3, Napster.
In other news, read about Amazon Alexa’s fate and whether or not it’s doomed to fail as generative A.I. picks up speed.
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