Remember Napster? It's coming back! Well, sort of
Former darling of file-swappers resurrected as name for Rhapsody's music-streaming service.
You probably remember using Napster to get a lot of music about 15 years ago before the file-swapping service was essentially sued out of existence.
The once-high-flying brand is about to be resurrected. Not as the peer-to-peer platform many used to (illegally, it turned out) build music libraries, but rather as the new name for Rhapsody's music-streaming service.
So what will change with the new name? Not much, promises Rhapsody, the music service that bought Napster's assets in 2011.
There will be "no changes to your playlists, favorites, albums and artists," Rhapsody said in a note announcing Napster's resurrection. "Same music. Same service. Same price."
The pioneering file-sharing service's software, created in 1999 by 19-year-old student Shawn Fanning, enabled users to swap MP3 files with each other across the internet for free. But that activity cut into the profits of the recording industry and artists, which filed lawsuits that eventually toppled Napster.
Hobbled by an onslaught of litigation from the traditional music industry, it morphed into a legal, streaming service and has been flying under the radar ever since.
That's about all we know about the new Napster. Rhapsody declined to offer additional details.