After being bought last month by the investment fund Hivemind and the blockchain company Algorand (ALGO), notably in order to reorient itself towards Web 3.0, Napster publishes its Litepaper to announce how its future will be built. For the occasion, the platform announces the release of its own token to bring music creators and their fans closer together.
Napster confirms its arrival in the Web3
Napster, one of the oldest music streaming platforms, was recently acquired by the consortium of investment fund Hivemind and blockchain company Algorand (ALGO). At that time, we still didn’t know what the future of the platform would be, except that it would be decidedly Web 3.0 oriented.
In order to introduce the guidelines planned for Napster, the latter published its “Litepaper V1.0”, a document specifying how it was going to move towards Web 3.0 and how it was going to offer it to its millions of users.
In short, the company now wants to position itself as a privileged point of interaction in order to connect music creators, their fans and rights holders. We learn that this will be done with the appearance of a new token “NAPSTER”.
According to the release, Napster plans to develop its products for Web 3.0 through the blockchain Algorand :
“Napster will unlock all the opportunities of Web 3.0 for fans, rights holders and music producers, leveraging the Algorand blockchain protocol (the only blockchain infrastructure with a negative carbon footprint in existence today).”
Although it stands as a pioneer among music streaming platforms, Napster had some struggles and passed through several hands, before adopting the name we know today again in 2016.
Thanks to its foray into Web 3.0, the platform is planning to return to the spotlight here by putting new ways in place for artists to connect with their fans.
The NAPSTER token as fuel for the Web3
In order to structure and order its ecosystem dedicated to Web 3.0, Napster wants to put its new token of the same name at the center of future features.
At the time of writing, no date has been announced for this token, but we already know that it will have many use cases and advantages for its holders.
The token, designed to be interoperable between blockchains and compatible with different ecosystems, will be distributed in 10 billion units, which will be shared between fans, creators, developers, rights holders and strategic partners of Napster.
The token will allow, among other things, direct subscription to Napster’s music streaming services, premium content such as early releases or the purchase of goods and services via applications compatible with the platform’s Web 3.0 services.
For Matt Zhang, Hivemind’s founder and CEO, Napster is part of a real long-term vision and does not just want to enjoy a momentary boost:
“Our investment in the company reflects a longer-term and much broader vision than the short-term business environment for crypto assets. Instead, we see a huge opportunity to create long-term value by applying Web3 programming to an existing, technology-driven business.”
Note that Napster will be able to find as a direct competitor the LimeWire platform, also a pioneer in the music industry, which recently decided to also move into Web 3.0 but with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at the forefront, including through a partnership with Universal Musical Group.
