Napster Revives Its Music Ambitions With Web3 Acquisition of Mint Songs

Remember Napster? It appears the early 2000s music sharing service has skipped from Web1 to Web3.

Napster said Wednesday it has acquired NFT music platform Mint Songs through its venture wing, Napster Ventures, to help bring the company into Web3.

Mint Songs allows artists to turn their music into NFTs, as well as create exclusive art for their fans.

“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,” Jon Vlassopulos, CEO of Napster, said in a press release. “It’s inspiring to see so many talented teams pushing to create a music ecosystem that is better for artists and fans.”

Napster plans to incorporate Mint Songs’ Web3 strategy and has hired former Head of Product Nate Pham to lead Napster’s Web3 product initiatives as well as former Mint Songs co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Garrett Hughes to serve as an adviser.

In a press release, Hughes praised Napster as the “partner that could take what we’ve built over the last two years” and continue to realize Mint Song’s goal of creating “deep, engaging and innovative ways for artists to connect with fans that also offer them an opportunity to monetize that fandom.”

"There’s actually a lot of synergy between the two companies as Mint Songs focused on establishing relationships with a wide variety of artists, who all have varying audiences of listeners on the Napster platform," Hughes told CoinDesk. "The introduction of collectibles and other Web3-based features will help artists engage with fans in more engaging ways while simultaneously offering new revenue streams to artists."

Recently, large music corporations have been dipping their toes into Web3 strategies. In October, music behemoth Warner Music Group posted a job opening for a senior director for metaverse development. Earlier this month, the former co-founders of sports betting company Fan Duel raised $4 million to create a digital music collectible startup called Vault.