Napster Takes ‘Foundational Step’ Into Web3 With Mint Songs Acquisition
Written by djfrosty on February 15, 2023
Napster announced that it acquired Mint Songs, a music NFT marketplace that aims to help artists establish a thriving Web3 presence, on Wednesday (Feb. 15). The acquisition brings together a streaming service with a platform focused on creating digital collectibles.
Jon Vlassopulos, CEO of Napster, said in a statement that Mint Songs “have done groundbreaking work helping thousands of artists get their start in Web3, reach their fans in new creative ways through collectibles, and unlock significant new revenue streams.”
“We feel that the natural next step for the Napster service is to include collectibles that fans can get as rewards for engaging with artists they love or that they can purchase to collect and share,” he added to Forbes. “We already have hundreds of thousands of artist storefronts where our fans go to listen to music every day so adding collectibles is very contextual in the fan experience.”
Garrett Hughes, co-founder and CTO of Mint Songs, said in a statement that Napster has “the vision to finally take Web3 music to the mainstream.” “Our goal all along has been to create deep, engaging, and innovative ways for artists to connect with fans that also offer them an opportunity to monetize that fandom,” he continued. “Conversely, we see a demand from fans for a music service to offer more than just on-demand music and podcasts, which makes Napster’s ambitious goals all the more attractive.”
Mint Songs’ Nathan Pham will join Napster to lead Web3 product initiatives, while Hughes will serve as an advisor to the company and “work closely with Vlassopulos to integrate Mint Songs’ technology into the Napster platform,” according to the acquisition announcement.
Last year, Napster was acquired by a pair of companies with Web3 experience: Hivemind and Algorand. Vlassopulos, who had spent close to three years at Roblox, took over as Napster CEO in September. “We want to bring the community together and enable the artists, with the data we have, to activate their communities around things like access to physical events and digital experiences,” he said at the time. Napster then launched Napster Ventures for the purpose of acquiring Web3 music startups.
Matt Zhang, founder and managing partner of Hivemind, applauded the Mint Songs acquisition on Wednesday. “We are excited for Napster to be a central player in the music Web3 ecosystem and acquiring Mint Songs is a great foundational step,” he said in a statement. “The combination of Napster’s continued innovation that powers the platform currently along with Mint Songs’ technology IP and expertise, will help drive Web3 innovation for the music industry.”