Napster
New modes of ownership: From torrents to music NFTs
Let’s take a breath and give creators room to explore this new space. And if IP law helps protect the new things that are being built, let’s applaud that.
RIP Google Music, one of the company’s last examples of generosity
Google Music is dead, and with it one of the few remaining connections I have to the company that doesn’t feel like a gun to my head. The service, now merged haphazardly with YouTube Music, reca
UK immersive music startup MelodyVR buys Napster for $70M in reverse takeover
Napster, the pioneering digital music brand from way back when, is changing hands once more. Today, a U.K. startup called MelodyVR, which creates immersive live music experiences that you watch either
Sonos launches Sonos Radio, a free streaming radio service including artist and genre stations
Sonos has launched its first in-house music streaming offering: Sonos Radio, a digital streaming radio service that includes both existing radio stations from TuneIn and iHeartRadio, as well as its ow
As Sinai Ventures returns first fund, partner Jordan Fudge talks new LA focus
At age 27, Jordan Fudge is quietly making a splash in the VC world. Fudge is the managing partner of Sinai Ventures, a multi-stage VC fund that manages $100 million and has more than 80 portfolio comp
How a Swedish saxophonist built Kobalt, the world’s next music unicorn
You may not have heard of Kobalt before, but you probably engage with the music it oversees every day, if not almost every hour. Combining a technology platform to better track ownership rights and ro
With a portfolio including Acorns, Sweetgreen and Ro, Torch Capital raises $60M for its first fund
Jonathan Keidan, the founder of Torch Capital, had already built a portfolio that included Acorns, Compass, Digital Ocean and Sweetgreen, before he raised single dollar for his inaugural venture capit
AR will mean dystopia if we don’t act today
The AR industry can avoid the creepy aspects of today’s data collection methods without hindering innovation.
Fifty years of the internet
When my team of graduate students and I sent the first message over the internet on a warm Los Angeles evening in October, 1969, little did we suspect that we were at the start of a worldwide revoluti
Mobile social network Path, once a challenger to Facebook, is closing down
It’s that time again, folks, time to say goodbye to a social media service from days past. Following the shuttering of Klout earlier this year, now Path, the one-time rival to Facebook, is closi
Prince returns to Spotify and Napster this weekend
Those looking to mourn Prince’s passing with a music marathon last April came away disappointed if they happened to (as most no doubt do) subscribe to any music service but Tidal. Now, nearly a year
Metallica is back on Napster, so maybe we can all get along after all
There doesn’t seem to be a hell of a lot in the way of hopefulness these days when it comes to bridging our divided society. But if Metallica and Napster can put aside nearly two decades of lawsuits
A prescription for preventing 3D printing piracy
In the year 2000, the music business was still strong. Record companies produced albums and shipped these physical objects to the stores that sold them. The internet was slowly becoming a system of ma
Napster Owner Rhapsody Passes 2M Paying Users As It Extends unRadio To Europe
In 2012, Rhapsody nabbed the European assets of streaming service Napster, covering the UK and Germany, to fill out its 2011 acquisition of Napster in the U.S., as part of its strategy to square up g
#Love: My First Experience With Internet Porn
Pornographic media has existed since the dawn of time, but it has never been as widely available and accessible as it is today. That's largely due to the internet, which provides a launch pad for our
Inside The Billion-Dollar Hacker Club
For this group of old friends, assembled for an impromptu reunion, the venue would feel familiar: an online chat room running on a secure private server. Each were former members of the elite hacking
Telefonica Takes A Strategic Stake In Rhapsody, Will Bring Napster Into Latin America, Deeper Into Europe
In the allegro-paced race between music streaming providers to see who will be the first to achieve profitable scale, today <a target="_blank" href="http://www.rhapsody.com">Rhapsody</a> got a signifi
Rhapsody Expands Its Napster Streaming Music Service To 14 More European Countries
The Rhapsody-owned Napster streaming music service is expanding into 14 new European countries today, significantly ramping up its presence in the region. The Napster service was already available in
Napster For Pirated 3D Printing Templates?
Buy it in a store, laser scan it at home, upload it to the web, print it anywhere. 3D printing is poised for the mainstream, but what happens when one person's finely hand-crafted designs can be pirat
Ron Conway Talks Napster And The Sharing Economy Problem That “Never Got Solved”
On stage at Disrupt NY 2013 today, serial investor Ron Conway and filmmaker/actor Alex Winter took the stage with CrunchFund's MG Siegler to talk about the documentary Downloaded about the rise and fa