Napster, the original peer-to-peer music sharing service, will live on as a streaming service in the UK and Europe as a challenger to Spotify.
Although Napster has re-appeared several times via different owners since its initial closure in 2001, it was purchased in 2011 by Rhapsody. While the company opted to retire the Napster branding in the US and fold the service into its own, the original Napster brand will live on in Europe.
With over 15 million tracks, it will match Spotify's UK subscription rates of Ј5 per month on computers and Ј10 per month for mobile access to unlimited music.
"The acquisition of Napster and its subscriber base in the UK and Germany gives us an ideal entry to the European market," Rhapsody president Jon Irwin told the Daily Telegraph. "Through the benefit of scale, the strength of our editorial programming, and strategic partnerships, we can now bring the Napster service to even more consumers on a variety of platforms."
The brand may not have the same prominence it once did, but in 1999 when an 18-year-old Shawn Fanning presented it to the world, it sparked a piracy revolution.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich famously spoke out against Napster at the time, later describing his regret after the poor publicity it gave him. Today, the music industry recognises that it missed a big opportunity by opting to sue the service rather than find ways to legalize and monetize the system before peer-to-peer sharing took hold.
Shawn Fanning went on to invest in the likes of Spotify and Facebook, with the latter story being retold in "The Social Network" where Fanning was played by Justin Timberlake.
A movie of the Napster story is now in the works, perhaps thanks to the success of "The Social Network". According to NME it will be directed by Alex Winter, best known for playing Bill in "Bill And Ted" opposite Keanu Reeves.
