Napster, commonly known as "Napster 2.0", was a

music streaming service A music streaming service is a type of online streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to s ...

and digital music store, launched by

Roxio Roxio is an American software company specializing in developing consumer digital media products. Its product line includes tools for setting up digital media projects, media conversion software and content distribution systems. The company form ...

in 2003 under the purchased name and trademarks of former free

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...

software

Napster Napster was an American proprietary peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application primarily associated with digital audio file distribution. Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the platform originally launched on June 1, 1999. Audio shared ...

in the aftermath of the latter's 2002 bankruptcy and subsequent shut down after a series of legal actions taken by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. Roxio purchased Napster and a music streaming service called

PressPlay PressPlay (stylised press''play'' not be confused witPressplay.app a streaming guide for movies and tv-shows was the name of an online music store that operated from December 2001 until March 2003. It was created as a joint venture between Univer ...

in 2003, to create a new legal online music service that lets users access music through a subscription or on a fee-per-song basis. Napster was later acquired by

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

. The service was acquired by rival Rhapsody in 2011.

History

As a Roxio subsidiary

In 2002, Roxio bought the assets of the original

at its

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

and acquired

in May 2003 for $40 million. After integrating the services, Roxio launched a revamped Napster in October 2003, whereby users were able to download songs a-la-carte or pay for a monthly unlimited download and

streaming media Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a Computer network, network for playback using a Media player (disambiguation), media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of Network packet, packets from a Server (computing), ...

service. Users were also able to share playlists and browse other users' libraries.

Napster MP3 player

Soon after launching the revamped Napster, Roxio partnered with Korean electronics maker

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

to create a Napster-branded

MP3 player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, battery-powered devices ...

. The player, named Samsung Napster YP-910 came with a 20GB hard disk that ran for ten hours on a

lithium-polymer A lithium polymer battery, or more correctly, lithium-ion polymer battery (abbreviated as LiPo, LIP, Li-poly, lithium-poly, and others), is a rechargeable battery derived from lithium-ion and lithium-metal battery technology. The primary differ ...

battery. It used a special version of Napster software and drivers to transfer DRM-protected files to the built-in hard disk.

Free Napster

In May 2006, Napster launched Free Napster, a free, advertising-supported Web-based music player that enabled users to stream full-length versions of all the songs in Napster's catalog of over 8 million tracks three times each, without downloading any software or making any service commitment. Visitors could also purchase DRM-free MP3 downloads. It was discontinued in March 2010.

As a Best Buy company

In September 2008, after introducing its

Insignia An insignia () is a sign or mark distinguishing a group, grade, rank, or function. It can be a symbol of personal power or that of an official group or governing body. An insignia, which is typically made of metal or fabric, is a standalone sy ...

line of

portable media player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, Electric battery, batter ...

acquired Napster for $121 million. At that time, Napster was incurring significant losses due to new competition and had approximately 760,000 subscribers. In January 2010, after losing subscribers, the CEO position, held by Chris Gorog, was eliminated.

Purchase by Rhapsody

In 2011, Napster was acquired by competing music streaming provider Rhapsody International. In June 2016, as part of a restructuring, Napster's San Francisco offices were closed, and some employees were laid off. Concurrently, Rhapsody announced that it would rebrand as

, citing that the name was better-known internationally.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Napster (Pay Service) Best Buy Music streaming services Online music stores of the United States Windows software Internet properties established in 2003 Companies based in Los Angeles Internet properties disestablished in 2011