Napster was an online file-sharing site that later became a licensed streaming music service still operating today.
In its first guise, Napster was co-founded by Shawn Fanning and Shaun Parker, and launched on June 1, 1999.
In June 2002, Napster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, and in September that year its assets and brand were acquired by Roxio.
In September 2008, Napster was acquired by US electronics retailer Best Buy in a US $121 million deal.
In December 2011, Napster was merged with Rhapsody, becoming the international brand of the firm’s licensed music streaming service.
In August 2020, it was announced that Napster had been sold to UK-listed virtual reality concerts company MelodyVR in a $70.6m deal.
According to RealNetworks, Napster started 2020 with over 3 million users across four continents, delivering over 90 million licensed tracks.
Today, Napster acts both a consumer-facing platform and a B2B / platform-as-a-service partner to businesses.
The platform served 10.8 billion streams in 2019 with annual revenues of $113 million.Music Business Worldwide