Napster Archives

Infinite Reality buys Napster for $207 million

26/03/2025

Infinite Reality buys Napster for $207 million and has plans to expand and reimagine the streaming service into a ‘social music platform’. Napster currently delivers over 110 million tracks and has paid over $1 Bn to artists and songwriters worldwide. Infinite Reality plans to transform Napster beyond streaming into a social and interactive music platform, leveraging its immersive technology and audience network of digitally native fans. This includes the millions engaged with iR’s entertainment assets, […]

Napster creates ChatGPT powered playlists

06/02/2024

Napster creates ChatGPT powered playlists in a new beta website showcasing PlaylistGPT, a new tool enabling users to create their ideal playlist. With PlaylistGPT, users can ‘put their ideas’ into a ChatGPT prompt and then Napster will deliver an AI-generated title, playlist, description and custom artwork. The launch marks the first time a music streamer has integrated ChatGPT and its text-to-image DALL.E model into its platform. Subscribers can save their playlists while those who aren’t can […]

mora qualitas streaming service to close

11/01/2022

mora qualitas streaming service to close on the 29th May 2022 after 3 years of providing a HiRes and CD Quality streaming service in Japan. The service which started in October 2019 is a joint venture between Sony Music and Rhapsody International (now Napster) using their ‘Powered by Napster’ technology. In a statement on their website (translated via Google) they say, “This service started to be provided in October 2019 and we have endeavoured to deliver the best sound quality […]

Streaming

Napster Review

30/12/2021

History Napster started out life as a peer to peer file trading service which was shut down for copyright violations. After bankruptcy and several owners it was bought by Rhapsody another streaming and download service in 2011. Rhapsody amalgamated the two services and rebranded as Napster. In August 2020 MelodyVR acquired Rhapsody and the Napster business and in February 2021 changed its name to Napster. The Napster streaming business has two divisions – consumer and […]

BMW Music service ‘Powered by Napster’

28/02/2020

BMW Music service ‘Powered by Napster’ will be providing European BMW car owners a premium music audio experience which is integrated into their vehicle with no setup, login or extra devices required. BMW Music will bring its on-demand music and audio service to BMW owners in Germany, France, UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Spain. Drivers and passengers now have easy one-click access to more than 60 million songs and 20,000 audiobooks through the […]

Indie artist streams double on Napster

21/12/2019

Indie artist streams double on Napster’s 100 most streamed artists growing from 15% in 2015 to 33% in 2019 according to a recent blog posting. Latest data from the streamer shows that its subscribers are streaming songs and albums by indie artists more frequently helping more listeners discover music outside the mainstream. Indie artists are also seeing this trend and are feeling optimistic. Eva Walker, The Black Tones, said, “With a ton of hard work […]

Napster prepares to launch Sony’s 360 Reality Audio

20/10/2019

Napster prepares to launch Sony’s 360 Reality Audio with an expected roll out in 2020 according to a recent blog posting by the streamer. Following on from Sony’s recent announcement that it will launch its 360 Reality Audio experience later this autumn, Napster confirmed that it would be partnering with Sony and expected to launch its Powered by Napster service incorporating the Sony technology in 2020. According to the blog, ‘you can close your eyes […]