Napster expands into Web3 music space with Mint Songs acquisition
After its Hivemind and Algorand acquisitions in May 2022, Napster has focused its attention in the web3 space by buying Mint Songs and the music startup has previously raised $4.3 million from Freestyle Capital and Castle Island Ventures, among other firms. Speaking of, the Mint Songs platform gives musicians the ability to create NFT items and songs through Polygon and the Ethereum blockchain itself.
Mint Songs has also worked with artists such as Grammatica, Black Dave and Mark D Clive-Lowe to release exclusive NFT memorabilia. When Napster’s CEO, John Vlasopulos, joined the company last year, he revealed all kinds of plans for music and web3 and all kinds of purpose and activity. Napster announced on Wednesday that its acquisition of Mint Songs was the first of a series of acquisitions focusing on Web3 features and related services.
Napster CEO John Vlasopulos said in a statement sent to Bitcoin that “We are certainly very excited to drive innovation in the digital music space, and we want to or we think this is an unprecedented era and according to us it seems that we have built more startups in the last 2 to 3 years than in the last 20 years” He further adds that, “As the newest member of the Napster family, we are happy and impressive We are glad to welcome Mint Songs, one of the web3 music startups”. The exact value of the acquisition was not disclosed and the deal was executed by Napster Ventures, a newly formed subsidiary that aims to invest in the best web3 music startups to grow.
Matt Zhang, founder and managing partner of Hivemind, said in a statement, “We are certainly very excited that we are going to be a new player and contribute to new technology, and this is a great and important step. which we will raise, and in addition, Napster believes that combining Web3 with existing streaming distributions will open up new opportunities for music fans to discover and innovate”. Similarly, LimeWire, an ‘old-school’ music file-sharing service, has also attempted to tackle the Web3 space with NFTs.
