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An eco*merce co*pany called Infinite Reality just bought Napster for $207 million, per The Hollywood Reporter. In other news, Napster still exists, but not as the den of piracy music fans knew and loved at the turn of the millennium. That version of the Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning-founded business went under in the early ’00s, but the name was resurrected and slapped on a subscription streaming service after it was bought by a co*pany called Rhapsody in 2011, which rebranded under the Napster name in 2016. It’s almost like Napster was taken from its original creators and used by outside actors in a manner pretty far removed from its original purpose—funny how that works.

Napster has gone through several iterations since that original Rhapsody rebrand, none of which have stuck. It was purchased for $70 million by a co*pany called MelodyVR in 2020, which attempted to turn it into a hybrid for music and live-streaming. That failed, and it was re-purchased again in 2022 by cryptocurrency co*panies Hivemind and Algorand.

Attempting to break the curse, Infinite Reality has yet another painfully of-the-moment idea for the property. Branding itself as “an innovation co*pany powering the next generation of digital media and eco*merce through extended reality (XR), artificial intelligence (AI), and other immersive technologies,” Infinite Reality has big plans to “creat[e] the ultimate music platform where artists can thrive in the next wave of digital disruption,” per a statement from its co-founder and CEO, John Acunto (via THR). It plans to do this by offering digital opportunities for “superfans,” including merch sales, AI-powered customer service, and virtual spaces where fans can digitally gather for concerts and listening parties. Infinite Reality counts a previously acquired “Drone Racing League” among its bona fides, while current Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos—who will stay on as the leader of this new venture—previously served as head of music for Roblox. 

“Napster revolutionized digital music in the nineties, and now, with Infinite Reality, we’re ready to do it again,” Vlassopulos said in his own statement. “With Infinite Reality’s expertise in immersive 3D technology, we will transform Napster into a next-generation platform where fans don’t just listen on their own—they experience music in entirely new ways.” We’ll just wait and see if Infinite Reality is bold enough to leak a few Radiohead albums to really back up that claim.