Napster

Extracted Attributes

Napster

Napster was a proprietary peer-to-peer file sharing application primarily associated with the distribution of digital audio files such as MP3s. It was launched in June 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. Due to lawsuits alleging copyright infringement, Napster was shut down in July 2001 and filed for bankruptcy in June 2002. Napster's intellectual property was acquired by Roxio for $5.3 million in November 2002 and it was relaunched under a subscription business model. In September 2008, Napster was purchased by Best Buy for $121 million. It was sold to Rhapsody in December 2011. In 2016, Rhapsody was renamed Napster. In 2022, Napster was acquired by two Web3 companies, Hivemind and Algorand. In March 2025, Napster was sold to Infinite Reality. In 2026, it was relaunched as an artificial intelligence tool.

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• Napster (streaming service) - Wikipedia

  Napster was a music streaming service based in Seattle, Washington, United States. Until 2016, the service was known domestically as Rhapsody before rebranding as Napster, the same name brand that was used by Roxio's Napster "Napster (pay service)"). On March 25, 2025, it was sold to Infinite Reality. In August 2025, Napster faced a lawsuit for $9 million of unpaid royalties by Sony Music and their catalog of music was pulled from the service, the app continued to lose more licensed music for months afterwards. Napster became a generative AI media creator with virtual assistant services, in January 2026. ## Overview [edit&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Overview")] [...] [edit&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Overview")] Napster started as an audio search engine named Aladdin that was purchased by Listen.com in May 2001 and became the basis for its new streaming service, called Rhapsody, that launched in December of the same year. Based on the Open Music Model principles, Rhapsody was the first streaming on-demand music subscription service to offer unlimited access to a large library of digital music for a flat monthly fee. In August 2003, internet media company RealNetworks, anticipating the launch of Apple's iTunes Store, acquired Rhapsody. [...] Rhapsody music streaming service post-2016 rebranding This article is about the current service operated as Napster. For the defunct peer-to-peer file-sharing software, see Napster. For the former service that operated as Napster, see Napster (pay service) "Napster (pay service)"). Napster

• Napster | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica

  Britannica Editors Last updated •History Napster, music file-sharing computer service created by American college student Shawn Fanning in 1999. Napster allowed users to share, over the Internet, electronic copies of music stored on their personal computers. The file sharing that resulted set in motion a legal battle over digital rights and the development of digital rights management software to prevent computer copyright piracy. [...] Roxio, Inc., an American computer software company, acquired the assets of Napster in 2002, and the following year Roxio relaunched Napster as a legitimate e-commerce enterprise that sold digital music files. In 2004 Roxio changed its corporate name to Napster to strengthen the identification with its music website. In 2008 Napster was acquired by the Best Buy Company, Inc., a U.S.-based retailer of electronic products. Napster was merged with the online music service Rhapsody in 2011, but in 2016 Rhapsody changed its name to Napster, reviving the brand. In 2020 Napster was acquired by the British virtual-reality music company MelodyVR, which in turn rebranded itself as the Napster Group. [...] The arrival of Napster in 1999 marked the emergence of decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing of music over the Internet. At its peak in 2001 there were as many as 1.5 million people simultaneously sharing files worldwide by using Napster’s software to find and connect with one another, and Napster had embedded in the consciousness of consumers the idea of downloading songs from the Internet for free—bypassing the purchase of established distribution forms, such as records, tapes, or compact discs (CDs). Napster was shut down in 2001 (see cybercrime: File sharing and piracy) after a successful court injunction was granted to the Recording Industry Association of America, but the idea that songs could be downloaded, stored, and shared through networked computers had clearly caught on.

• The History Of Napster

  # The History Of Napster ## Channel: e chang 7.68K subscribers 18 likes ### Description 590 views Posted: 2024-10-04 Napster was a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application primarily associated with digital audio file distribution. Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the platform originally launched on June 1, 1999. Audio shared on the service was typically encoded in the MP3 format. As the software became popular, the company encountered legal difficulties over copyright infringement. Napster ceased operations in 2001 after losing multiple lawsuits and filed for bankruptcy in June 2002. [...] ### Transcript [0:00] Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing app that started in 1999 and ended in [0:12] 2002 Napster was founded in May of 1999 by Shan Fanning and Shawn Parker two college students with a shared vision of [0:21] revolutionizing how music was accessed and distributed the two students created a [0:28] service that allowed you users to share their music files directly with each other effectively creating a vast and decentralized online music library [0:37] unlike previous methods of obtaining music Napster enabled users to easily search for and download their favorite [0:44] songs without purchasing them this peer-to-peer file sharing service allowed users to freely download and [...] [4:03] record labels and Napster this settlement effectively ended the company as they filed for [4:10] bankruptcy shortly thereafter Napster was forced into liquidating its remaining [4:18] Assets in 2002 napster's brand and logos were acquired at a bankruptcy auction by Roxio in a bid for $5.3 million in cash [4:28] to buy the rights for nap technology portfolio brand name and trademarks which they use to Rebrand their streaming service formerly called [4:36] pressplay as Napster 2.0 Roxio relaunched Napster as a [4:44] legitimate e-commerce Enterprise that sold digital music files in 2004 Roxio changed its corporate name to Napster to [4:51] strengthen the identification with its music website in 2008 Napster was acquired by

• What was Napster? 25 years ago, website changed the way we get music

  Remember Napster, the online network that let you download music tracks for free? All it did was totally change the entertainment industry. Still, you may not recall its influence because the first version of Napster had a relatively short life. Soon after Napster launched on June 1, 1999, the recording industry sued to have it shut down. Over the ensuing months as Napster fought for its life in court, consumers continued to rip CDs and put tracks onto their computers and onto the file-sharing network so others could download them. Napster grew from 20 million users in 2000 to an estimated 80 million users at its peak, The Guardian reported. [...] What to watch ☀️ See the stage 🎭 10 best shows Watch Party Newsletter ENTERTAINMENT Online Media # It’s been 25 years since Napster launched and changed the music industry forever ## Napster, founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker 25 years ago, was a milestone in how the internet could connect users and allow for content sharing. One snag: it amounted to online piracy. Portrait of Mike Snider Mike Snider USA TODAY Updated June 1, 2024, 9:48 a.m. ET Napster was a file-sharing service that allowed users to download music tracks for free. The recording industry sued to have Napster shut down, and the company went into bankruptcy in 2002. Napster paved the way for digital downloads and music streaming services. [...] ## What was Napster and what went wrong? Shawn Fanning began work on what would be come Napster as a freshman at Northeastern University in Boston. The Napster software, when downloaded and running on a personal computer, allowed users to search through millions of MP3 song files on other people's PCs that also had the software. All the users could download songs from each others computers. "It was something that just provided a better way … a more reliable way and fun way for people to share music and see each other's music collection," the Napster co-founder said in an interview with the BBC, first broadcast in 2011. Napster got its name from Fanning's nickname he earned as a result of his hairdo.

• Napster 25th anniversary: Music sharing site created a monster - Los Angeles Times

  When Northeastern University undergrad Shawn Fanning and business partner Sean Parker launched Napster on June 1, 1999, music was still largely consumed via compact disc, which labels sold at hefty profits. Fans had ways to trade songs, from taping off the radio to burning mix CDs, but nothing like this. Fanning saw how a user-friendly platform could take the curiosity of song-swapping and escalate it via MP3s, shared over new broadband internet connections on college campuses. Users posted their digital music libraries online for anyone to see and download for themselves through a decentralized network. The Napster internet site appears on a computer screen. The Napster logo, bottom left, in 2003. (Bruno Vincent / Getty Images) [...] (Bruno Vincent / Getty Images) “They mainstreamed an underground hobby,” Menn said. “No one is going to go out and buy 100 records, but here the supply of music was infinite. It was always a social lubricant to make a mixtape for someone you wanted to date. Now you could do that at scale.” Within months, Napster was either a mortal wound to the record industry or an incredible marketing and audience research tool — or maybe both at once. Advertisement “The record industry spends millions [promoting] new bands,” its former Chief Executive Eileen Richardson told The Times in 2001. “I saw Napster as a way to test-market and feed new musical artists to you for virtually nothing.” [...] Read the stories But beyond its effect on music, Napster also heralded a troubling new ethic in tech: Make yourself ubiquitous before the law can stop you. Advertisement “Years later, Napster is still an exemplar and inspiration in Silicon Valley,” said Joseph Menn, the author of “All The Rave,” the definitive history of Napster (and a former Times reporter now at the Washington Post). “Uber and Airbnb took the same approach — blow away taxi and hotel regulations to give people something they want and grow so big you eventually get politicians on your side. Napster created this whole wave of antihero entrepreneurs.”

• Country

  United States

• Instance Of

  Q7397

• Inception Date

  1/1/1999