Artificial intelligence startup Infinite Reality has acquired the music-pirating app turned music streaming service Napster

Infinite Reality said in a March 25 statement that Napster would offer “branded 3D virtual spaces” to allow virtual concerts and “social listening parties”

Infinite Reality is buying music-streaming service Napster for $207 million and plans to add a music-focused metaverse to the brand, the artificial intelligence startup announced on March 25.

The move comes after a long and winding journey for Napster, pivoting from a music-pirating app to a streaming service and bouncing between several owners over the past 20 years.

Infinite Reality said that Napster would offer “branded 3D virtual spaces” to allow virtual concerts and “social listening parties” along with the ability to offer virtual merchandise.

“Imagine stepping into a virtual venue to watch an exclusive show with friends, chat with your favorite artist in their own virtual hangout as they drop their new single, and be able to directly buy their exclusive digital and physical merch,” said Jon Vlassopulos, CEO of Napster, who will continue in his role amid the acquisition.

“The internet has evolved from desktop to mobile, from mobile to social, and now we are entering the immersive era,” he added.

The most legendary collab?! Infinite Reality has acquired iconic online music brand @Napster.With this acquisition, we're expanding and reimagining Napster, empowering artists with new audience monetization and engagement capabilities, underpinned by iR’s #immersive technologies. #M2O

Infinite Reality also plans for Napster to allow musicians to use AI customer and community management agents and analytics dashboards to track fan behavior and cross-promotion with its other entertainment properties, such as Esports teams.

Napster’s latest repurposing

The service was originally launched in 1999 as a peer-to-peer (P2P) filing-sharing service, mostly for music. It was shut down in 2001 by a court order after a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits.

The now-bankrupt company later sold its brand, which was relaunched as a music-streaming service before bouncing between owners for the next 20 years. Most recently, the blockchain firm Algorand and crypto investment firm Hivemind bought it in 2022.

Related: Here’s what musicians actually think of tokenizing content in Web3

The brand had been making several moves in the Web3 space, announcing plans in June 2022 to launch its own Napster token on the Algorand blockchain that could be used to buy music subscriptions and other content. It also bought Web3 music startup Mint Songs in February 2023.

John Acunto, co-founder and CEO of Infinite Reality, said the team hopes to lead an “internet industry shift from a flat 2D clickable web to a 3D conversational one.”

Infinite Reality says the acquisition of Napster is slated to close in a few weeks. According to the firm, it hopes to evolve the Napster brand to become the leading immersive music platform for artists, fans and curators through audience monetization and engagement capabilities.