Napster names ex-Roblox music exec as CEO

Music streaming company Napster has hired Jon Vlassopulos as its next CEO. The company also declared a new funding round.

The funding total wasn’t disclosed, other than that it is in eight figures. If you are like me, you could be thinking why Napster is still alive right after it received crushed by the songs firms a few of many years in the past. Now which is a little bit of a tale.

Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker commenced Napster as a digital audio streaming provider in 1999. It grew to about 80 million registered users who beloved the idea of cost-free songs. Napster experienced additional than 100 million MP3 tracks at its peak.

I amassed a pretty significant collection of my possess. But then the likes of Metallica, Dr. Dre, A&M Data, and the Recording Sector Association of The us came out 1 by 1 versus Napster and sued the startup. In mid-2002, Napster declared personal bankruptcy and I said so long to my cost-free music.

But that was not in fact the stop. Roxio bought the Napster brand name and logos and revived its Pressplay new music assistance as Napster 2.. In 2008, Finest Buy acquired Napster. In 2011, Best Purchase merged Napster with Rhapsody. By 2016, Rhapsody phased out its brand in favor of Napster. Then it was marketed in 2020 to VR live performance company MelodyVR.

And in Might 2022, Napster was marketed to Hivemind, Algorand, and an investor consortium. The traders in this new spherical incorporate Hivemind, Algorand, SkyBridge Capital, Alumni Ventures, Borderless Funds, and G20 Ventures, which will speed up Napster’s Net3 initiatives. Brevan Howard Digital, Arrington Cash, and RSE Ventures are also amongst the present investors of the music model.

“Napster constantly stayed in the back again of my thoughts and it has never actually been enhanced on since it was this local community,” Vlassopulos reported in an interview with GamesBeat. “The way that the tunes services finished up were much more commodity than neighborhood. So that was my initially contact place with the brand name. It then obtained additional to the support that you could don’t forget Rhapsody company that RealNetworks had, which was really the initial streaming services ahead of Spotify. So then, Rhapsody grew to become branded as Napster.”

Vlassopulos reported that the initial new music assistance experienced DNA as a new music disrupter.

“It”s been running alongside for a quantity of years as a single of the Spotify competition. And it has modified palms a couple of occasions,” he explained. “Now it is a streaming new music support with 100 million tracks accessible around the world.”
Napster offers streaming music to Sonos and other companies. It has a lot of immediate licenses with indie musicians. Vlassopulos explained the new enterprise has new ambitions thanks to its deep-pocketed World-wide-web3 traders and many others.

“At Roblox, we developed a new new music field in the metaverse,” he said. “With Website3, there’s a huge possibility for revolution, and a altering of the guard that we experienced comparable to 20 decades back. Like we did on Roblox, enthusiasts want to link with the artists they appreciate and be in a local community.”

He is not disclosing much about that Website3 system just still, other than that it is a hybrid Website2 and Website3 possibility.

Vlassopulos, the former vice president and worldwide head of new music at Roblox, is credited with constructing the gaming platform company’s tunes initiatives and bringing artists into the metaverse by using interactive, immersive, and hyper social ordeals.

“In our early conversations with Jon, we swiftly understood his vision of developing a fresh new, new, and social on the web new music support centered around connecting artists and enthusiasts in new ways, and leveraging World-wide-web3 technological innovation, aligns beautifully with wherever we see Napster heading,” said W. Sean Ford, CEO of Algorand, in a statement. “We consider Napster is the perfect manufacturer and system to guide the up coming generation of the new music field that goes further than streaming or avatar-pushed digital concert events. Jon’s robust connectivity with the audio sector and extensive knowledge will give us the essential leadership to make this a fact.” 

Mainly because of Vlassopulos’ initiatives, Roblox audio experiences attained above 100 million followers and set the typical for virtual concert events and music worlds that allow supporters to participate in the resourceful approach alongside with their preferred artists.

“It’s an honor to choose on this position and I am thrilled to lead a corporation with these kinds of a loaded background in the tunes industry. With the arrival of Net3 technological know-how, we now have an unprecedented opportunity to join artists and lovers in new, revolutionary techniques whilst also building the admirer knowledge extra enjoyment and social and producing new earnings streams for artists,” stated Vlassopulos. “I have invested the final a few several years operating difficult to establish new, imaginative, and professional chances for artists in the metaverse and I am searching forward to doing work together with the wonderful Napster workforce, our recent and future partners, labels, artists,
publishers, makes, and startups to bring mainstream enthusiasts to Web3.” 

Napster is also launching Napster Ventures which will concentration on fostering, investing in, and acquiring the most effective Net3 tunes startups. 

“We are psyched for Napster to be a central player in the songs Internet3 ecosystem,” reported Matt Zhang, founder and taking care of associate of Hivemind, in a assertion. “We glance forward to rallying all the amazing
innovation that has happened to day so we can all collectively drive mainstream adoption of Net3 know-how for the new music sector.”

Algorand, in partnership with Napster, is also launching an artist progress fund intended to help artists navigate and be successful in World-wide-web3. The fund will make investments in artists to enable assist the advertising and launch of the World-wide-web3 artist initiatives globally. 

Vlassopulos has been a serial entrepreneur, senior government, recognized trader, and assumed chief in the tunes, gaming, and entertainment place for the previous 3 many years. Immediately after starting his career as a DJ, he then worked for BMG and Bertelsmann in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and New York in the late 90s where he led numerous of their early electronic initiatives and investments, including operating on the primary Napster 20+ many years in the past, in advance of becoming a member of AT&T Wireless where he introduced the very first cell music services in the US, and released the initially mobile applications for lots of significant international models.

Just after AT&T, he ran the Electronic and Branded Leisure divisions at Endemol, a main world Tv manufacturing enterprise before turning out to be the CEO of Skyrockit, an award winning mobile entertainment internet marketing and advertising and marketing agency, with clientele like vitaminwater, Hole, Virgin Cellular, and Clinique. 

In 2019, Vlassopulos joined Roblox as Vice President and Worldwide Head of New music as the company sought to be the chief in making metaverse live performance encounters. In the course of his tenure, Jon designed Roblox’s new music tactic from scratch and led the company’s initiatives and partnerships by creating strategic, lengthy-expression relationships with file labels, publishers, management organizations, businesses, artists, models, and music startups from about the entire world.

“Napster has usually been at the forefront of music tech and a important husband or wife in serving to us supply Sonos Radio to songs admirers all-around the planet,” reported Ryan Myers, common supervisor of Sonos Radio, in a assertion. “We are enthusiastic about the news unveiled right now and glimpse forward to operating with Jon and his workforce in the months forward.” 

Over time, Napster has compensated out billions of pounds to the tunes market, and so it has a observe history, Vlassapulos mentioned. And so tons of artists and providers and brands want to lover with Napster, he claimed.

He thinks that digital concerts in which countless numbers of folks obtain in online activities will be element of the new tunes metaverse platforms. But the enterprise continue to has a good deal of perform to do to figure it all out.

The corporation has about 150 persons in London, Seattle, Germany, France, and Brazil. The primary career is to double down on how Napster is a new music community, Vlassopulos claimed.

“There is an sector prospect to develop something content and we could have the possible to be a chief for the next era,” he stated.

Vlassopulos reported the business will use the funding round to evolve. The firm will create on organizations based on audio and pitch them to its millions of lovers who use Napster to listen to new music. And Napster will expand new music into the Net3 place and assistance it come to be each more innovative and mainstream, he said.