Napster is back from the grave.
Napster will forever be remembered as that one application that singlehandedly revolutionized online music in the past.
It was the music industry’s biggest enemy, and artists from all over the world united against it.
The recording industry was so determined to take down Napster that a federal lawsuit that it filed against the service in 2001 essentially became the start of the end for the company.
Soon enough, Napster plummeted to the ground as quickly as it rose up.
But it’s not completely dead.
After the company filed for bankruptcy in 2002, it was passed on from buyer to buyer, which included electronics retailing giant, Best Buy, before the company finally ended up on the lap of online music streaming company, Rhapsody.
Prior to acquiring Napster, Rhapsody was one of the firsts to offer subscription music streaming services, starting as early as 2001.
Although the company is not as powerful as its current rivals, namely: Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and Tidal, among others — Rhapsody does have a substantial number of subscribers under its belt, with a total of 3.5 million subscribers, to be exact.
The company hopes that taking on the name of Napster — which is essentially more popular than Rhapsody ever was and ever would be — would help propel its music streaming services upwards, and, ideally, be able to take on the leading names in the industry later on.
More and more tech companies have decided to give the online music streaming services industry their attention, mainly because it has become a billion-dollar industry that has the capability to generate a fortune for each of them.
Rhapsody, meanwhile, has started using the name Napster in some of the 34 countries that it has covered all around the world, and it hopes to take on the same name everywhere it is present.
In a blog post, the company announced:
“No changes to your playlists, favorites, albums, and artists. Same music. Same service. Same price. 100% the music you love. Stay tuned!”