Music Streaming Company Napster To Launch Its Own Token On Algorand

Veteran music streaming app Napster is making moves into the Web3 space, with the announcement of a planned $NAPSTER token launch on Algorand.

The company has released a litepaper outlining its plans to build out its existing music streaming ecosystem on the layer-1 blockchain, though a launch date has yet to be announced.

“Napster will unlock all the opportunities of Web3 for fans, rights holders and music makers,” the litepaper reads. It added that the Algorand blockchain is “the only carbon-negative blockchain infrastructure currently in existence.” 

What is Napster?

Co-founded in 1999 by Sean Parker, later the founding president of Facebook, Napster was originally a peer-to-peer file-sharing platform focused on digital audio.

Following a flurry of copyright lawsuits from the music industry, the company ceased operations in 2001 and filed for bankruptcy in 2002.

In 2011, the company was acquired by Best Buy, which merged it with its brand Rhapsody; the Napster brand was subsequently revived in 2016.

In May 2022, Napster was acquired by blockchain firm Algorand and Matt Zhang’s Hivemind Capital Partners, which continued to offer its paid music streaming service.

According to its latest public filing, Napster reported revenues of £32.9m in the first half of 2021,  up from £0.2m during the same period last year.

Why $NAPSTER token?

Napster plans to issue $NAPSTER tokens under the aegis of a non-profit organization, the Napster Innovation Foundation.  During the launch, there will be 10 billion $NAPSTER tokens.

“While the supply of $NAPSTER tokens is set to be capped at 10 billion coins,” Matt Zhang, co-founder of Hivemind Capital Partners, told Bloomberg, the figure was “meaningless” until “further decisions are made on how the token will operate.”

Per its litepaper, $NAPSTER will be used as a payment method for purchasing music subscriptions, exclusive artist content rights, and accessing premium features of the company’s streaming service.

It will also be utilized for purchasing goods and services across different third-party applications that are interoperable with Napster Network.

Napster will also publish a series of open-source smart contracts relating to the creation and distribution of digital content within the Napster Network.

Algorand (ALGO) has dropped by 6% over the past 24 hours and currently trades around $0.29. 

ALGO is down 92% from its all-time high of $3.28 recorded in June 2019, according to data from CoinMarketCap.