Photo Credit: Napster
Napster has acquired NFT marketplace Mint Songs following its ‘wind down’ in late 2022.
Napster is helmed by former Roblox music executive Jon Vlassopulos, who moved to acquire Mint Songs. Mint Songs is an NFT marketplace that helps artists build a web3 community around their music, mint songs, and provide exclusive art for their fans to trade. So what did Napster pay for Mint Songs? The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
What we do know is that Mint Songs Co-Founder and CEO Garrett Hughes will stay on in an advisory capacity. He’ll be helping to integrate Mint Songs’ technology into the Napster platform, while offering guidance as Napster rolls out new products. Former Head of Product Nate Pham is joining Napster to lead its web3 initiatives.
“We are in an unprecedented era of innovation in the digital music space and it feels like there have been more music startups formed in the last two to three years than in the previous 20,” adds John Vlassopulos, CEO of Napster.
“It’s inspiring to see so many talented teams pushing to create a music ecosystem that is better for artists and fans,” he continues. “Garrett and team have done groundbreaking work helping thousands of artists get their start in web3, reach their fans in new creative ways through collectibles, and unlock significant new revenue streams.”
Mint Songs previously raised $4.3 million from investors. The company worked with artists including Gramatik, Mark de Clive-Lowe and Black Dave to offer exclusive NFT items to their fans. Vlassopulos says the ability to create artist collectibles will be available on the Napster platform “in the coming months.”
“We feel that the natural next step for the Napster service is to include collectibles that fans can get as rewards for engaging with artists they love or that they can purchase to collect and share. We already have hundreds of thousands of artist storefronts where our fans go to listen to music every day so adding collectibles is very contextual in the fan experience.”