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Napster Service Terms of Use : Rhapsody International
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Last Updated: January 2021
This Terms of Use Agreement (“Agreement”) is a legally binding and valid agreement between you (“you” and “your”), Napster Group PLC, and either Napster Luxembourg S. à r. l. (if you live in Europe), Napster do Brasil Licenciamento de Música Ltda. (if you live in Brazil), Napster K. K. (if you live in Japan), or Rhapsody International Inc. (if you live anywhere else), (collectively, and with their affiliates, subsidiaries, and assigns, “Napster, ” “our, ” “us, ” or “we”). Napster provides various products and services, including mobile and web-based applications for electronically distributing, downloading, and streaming music (collectively, the “Services”). This Agreement governs your rights and obligations with respect to your use of and access to the Services.
In certain situations, we make the Services available through partners, including mobile carriers, device manufacturers, app stores, and others (“Partners”). If you have subscribed to or accessed the Services by means of one of our Partners, this Agreement is in addition to any agreement you may have with that Partner, and Napster may provide the Services to you on behalf of the Partner. This Agreement applies regardless of whether your billing relationship is directly with Napster, or with a Partner.
Please note that special terms may apply to you depending on the jurisdiction where you reside or happen to be while accessing or using the Services, or the Partner through which you access the Services. These special terms, which may be different from the generally applicable terms in the main body of this Agreement, are found at the end of this Agreement in Section 13.
This Agreement is in addition to the Napster
Privacy Policy
and the Napster
End User License Agreement, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, and all of which together constitute one agreement whose terms bind and apply to you when you have accepted them. In the event of any conflict or inconsistency between the provisions of this Agreement and the Privacy Policy or the Napster End User License Agreement, the provisions of this Agreement shall control and govern, followed by those of the Napster End User License Agreement, then the Privacy Policy.
By accessing and using the Services, or through your express agreement when requested, you accept this Agreement and you acknowledge and agree that you have read it, that you understand it, and that you consent to be bound by all of its terms and conditions. You represent that you are a resident of a jurisdiction in which the Services are available, and that you have the power to enter into this Agreement (see the Minimum Age requirements below).
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, DO NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICES.
Table of Contents
Accessing and Using the Services
Requirements for Access
Registration and Your Account
Minimum Age
Your Profile
Posting User Content
Community Guidelines
Abuse
Use of the Services While Driving
Subscriptions, Purchases, Trials, and Payment
Subscriptions
Non-Subscription Purchases
Free Trials
Family Plan
Special Promotions
Cancelling Your Subscription
Termination by Napster
Subscription Changes
No Refunds
Methods of Payment
Late Payments
Taxes
Payment Method Authorization
Modifications to Fees of Billing Terms
Customer Service
Billing and Payment Issues
Other Issues
Intellectual Property Rights
Copyright Infringement
Interruptions and Modifications to the Services
Disclaimer of Warranty
Limitation of Liability
General
Subscriptions through a Partner
Indemnification
Changes to this Agreement
Dispute Resolution and Arbitration
Applicable Law
Final and Binding Arbitration
Arbitration Process
Arbitration Fees and Awards
Class Action Waiver
Prior Negotiations
Exceptions to Arbitration
Severability
Territory- and Partner-Specific Information
BMW
Brazil
California
Europe
Some of Napster’s Services require a subscription and recurring payment over a specific length of time (e. g. a week, a month, or a year) in order to maintain access to the Services. Other Services may require non-recurring payments to access certain features. Other Services may not require payment from you at all. The available features depend upon the specific Service or tier of Service you use, and will be communicated to you as part of the sign-up or on-boarding process, or built into the software that allows you to access the Services. You may sign up for the Services through one of our Partners, in which case you may be subject to a separate agreement with that Partner, and may be required to make payment (including payment for the Services) directly to the Partner. Many functions of the Services require access to the Internet, and any associated connectivity or data charges are your sole responsibility. You may only use the Services for your personal, non-commercial use.
Some of the Services require you to obtain a Napster account by completing a registration process either on our website or on one of our mobile apps. If you provide us with required or optional personal information during any applicable registration process, this information must be true, accurate, current, and complete. You may change any of your account information, including your payment method, at any time, and are obligated to update it if it changes. The Napster
governs all information you provide to us, whether during the registration process or during your access and use of the Services. If you provide us with a payment method, such as a credit card, you represent that you are authorized to use it.
If we suspend or terminate your account, you cannot create another one without our permission. You are solely and entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for any and all activities that occur under your account. If your account includes sub-accounts (such as for a family plan), you are responsible for payment and compliance with this Agreement for all sub-accounts associated with your account, regardless of who is actually using the sub-accounts. If you believe someone has used your account without your authorization, you should
inform Napster
and set up a new password.
You must be at least 18 years old or the age of majority in the territory where you reside (whichever is higher) (the “Age of Majority”) to accept this Agreement and create an account without the prior consent of a parent or legal guardian (“Parental Consent”), and at least 13 years old (or the legal minimum to enter into contracts with the consent of a legal representative in the territory where you reside, whichever is higher) (the “Minimum Age”) to accept this Agreement and create an account with Parental Consent. If you are a parent or guardian of a dependent who is above the Minimum Age but below the Age of Majority, and thereby not old enough to accept this Agreement and create an account, you may accept the terms of this Agreement and create an account on behalf of your dependent. In that case, you agree to take responsibility for the actions of your dependent, the charges associated with your dependent’s use of the Services, and your dependent’s compliance with this Agreement. YOU AGREE TO TAKE STEPS AS ARE APPROPRIATE TO ENSURE SUCH COMPLIANCE AND WILL INDEMNIFY AND HOLD NAPSTER, ITS SUBSIDIARIES, ITS AFFILIATES, AND ITS PARTNERS HARMLESS FROM ANY BREACH OF THIS AGREEMENT.
When you register for the Services, you are assigned a user profile, which you may use to organize your favorite music, discover new music, and interact with other users. Certain tiers of the Services may allow for more than one profile per account. You may customize your profile by adding a name, photo, or other information to it. Depending on the privacy settings you choose, your profile may be publicly discoverable and accessible to others (including people who do not use the Services), or it may be private and hidden from others. The Napster
has more details about the privacy settings for your profile, including the default status, and how we use the information you provide when customizing your profile. It is your responsibility to be aware of and control the privacy settings for your profile. You may also be able to link your Napster profile with other third-party social networks and, for example, post information from your Napster profile to those networks; the terms applicable to those networks govern your use of them. You are responsible for the content of your profile and any information you post to third-party social networks.
You are solely responsible for all profile information, data, messages, images, playlists, playlist names, links, communications, images, files, or other materials (collectively “User Content”) you create, post, or otherwise add to the Services. Napster’s uses of any User Content shall be governed by the Napster
Privacy Policy, and more information is available there about how to control who sees the User Content you post. Napster is not liable to you for any third-party claims arising from User Content you post on the Services, and you agree to indemnify Napster for such claims pursuant to Section 9 below.
By posting User Content, you represent that you control the relevant rights to it, and that it does not violate any privacy, publicity, technical, commercial protection, or intellectual property rights of any party, or any applicable law regarding competition, content, or youth protection. Napster is not liable to you for any claims of infringement of intellectual property rights or other third-party rights arising out of or in connection with any User Content that you post, and you hereby agree to indemnify Napster in accordance with the terms of Section 9 below, for any such intellectual property and/or third-party claim. You grant Napster a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable, transferable license to use, display, reproduce, make available to the public, distribute, create derivative works of, modify, translate, delete, or publish all User Content you post (in whole or in part), and a similar license to use for promotional or commercial purposes all User Content you post and make available publicly, without any obligation to make any payment to you or others or to give you credit, for so long as such User Content remains on the Services. Napster does not make any claim of ownership to any User Content you post.
You must be respectful of others within the Napster community. You agree that you will not post any User Content that falls into any of the following categories: (a) commercial communications (including, but not limited to, spam, multi-level marketing schemes, or unauthorized advertising); (b) viruses or other malicious, harmful, troublesome, or nuisance code that interferes with another user’s ability to use the Services; (c) solicitation of other users’ login information or account access; (d) content that is abusive, defamatory, hateful, threatening, intimidating, harassing, indecent (including, but not limited to, pornography), fraudulent, misleading, illegal, or violent; (e) content that could disable, overburden, or impair the proper working or appearance of the Services or other third-party services, such as a denial of service attack or interference with page rendering or streaming or other functionality; (f) content that facilitates or encourages violation of this Agreement or Napster’s other policies; (g) content that impersonates another person (including a recording artist, record label, or music publisher) or is designed to deceive others about the source of the information; (h) content that is associated with attempts to decipher, decompile, or reverse engineer any of the software used to provide the Services; (i) content that encourages or enables any other individual to do any of the foregoing; or (j) content that is, encourages, or makes up part of anything that is, otherwise unlawful ( collectively, the “Prohibited Content”).
Posting of any material that Napster deems, in its sole discretion, to be Prohibited Content or objectionable in any way, may result in immediate removal of the Prohibited Content and immediate suspension, termination, or permanent deletion of your user account and User Content. Napster is not responsible for any loss of personal data resulting from termination or permanent deletion of your account. If you have posted Prohibited Content more than twice, you will be deemed a repeat offender, and Napster may, in its sole discretion, permanently block your access to the Services.
Napster reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to review, edit, restrict, remove, or otherwise approve any User Content, but Napster is under no general obligation to preventatively monitor or remove any User Content. To the extent Napster does monitor or remove User Content, the fact that Napster engages in such monitoring or removal shall not be deemed to make Napster responsible for or aware of any User Content. Napster is not responsible for User Content, nor does it endorse any User Content. If you believe any User Content to be inappropriate, please report abuse by contacting
or by following other instructions we may provide, but Napster is under no obligation to remove even reported inappropriate User Content.
Napster uses monitoring procedures designed to prevent individuals from unfairly influencing charts or Napster’s accounting of plays through the Services. Napster reserves the right to remove any identified or suspected “gaming” plays on the Services both for royalty accounting and charting purposes and to suspend or cancel the account of any user suspected of such “gaming. ”
We may, in our sole discretion, remove, disable, edit, and monitor any User Content from the Services for any reason without notice to you or any other user. Violation of any of the terms of this Agreement or the Napster
End User License Agreement, including the foregoing restrictions on User Content, may, in Napster’s sole discretion, result in the suspension or termination of your account. Napster reserves any and all available rights or remedies. In the event that you violate such terms, and you are (or are acting for the benefit of) a provider of content that appears within the Services, such breach may also result in the removal of such content from the Services and the withholding of royalties related to such content.
Always drive alertly and in accordance with road conditions and applicable traffic laws. Any direct interaction with the Services (including, but not limited to, searching for content, selecting content to play, and interacting with other users) is prohibited while driving. If you wish to interact with the Services while driving, you must first stop your vehicle in an appropriate and legal manner and place. You acknowledge that it is your responsibility to comply with all applicable laws when you use the Services in any way while driving, and that your use of the Services in any way while driving is entirely at your own risk. NAPSTER WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGE, INJURY, OR ANY OTHER DAMAGE, LOSS (INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFIT AND LOSS OF DATA), COST, EXPENSE, OR PAYMENT, EITHER IN TORT, CONTRACT, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF LIABILITY, ARISING FROM OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE WHILE DRIVING.
Many of the Services are offered on a subscription basis. In exchange for a periodic payment from you (the amount and currency of which is determined based on the specific Services you choose as well as your jurisdiction of residence), you have access to the Services to which you subscribed for a defined period of time (e. g., a week, a month, or a year). Unless you notify us of your decision to terminate your subscription, your subscription will automatically renew at the end of each subscription term for the same period of time. When your subscription automatically renews, your payment method (such as a credit card) will be charged our then-current fees for the applicable subscription on your Billing Date (as defined below). However, if the subscription fee has increased, we will provide at least 30 days’ prior notice through email or in-app messaging. Your “Billing Date” is the date on which we periodically charge your preferred payment method (e. g., on a particular date each month for a monthly subscription; on the anniversary for an annual subscription, etc. ). If your normal Billing Date does not exist in a particular month because there are fewer than 31 days in that month, your Billing Date that month will be the last day of the month. If we are unable to successfully charge you for your subscription payment (for example, due to an expired credit card), your subscription will be terminated as of your Billing Date (although you may, of course, provide a new payment method and resume your subscription at any time). If your subscription to the Service is billed through a Partner, your Billing Date will be determined according to the Partner’s policies.
Some of the Services may allow you to make individual purchases of content or features offered as part of the Services or of credits that may be used to unlock content or features. These purchases are separate and distinct from subscriptions, and you may not be required to have a subscription in order to make such purchases, although you may be required to register for an account with Napster. These purchases may be presented as “in-app purchases, ” wherein the purchase is managed and processed not by Napster, but through the app store (such as iTunes or Google Play) where you acquired the Napster app. Napster will make reasonable efforts, within the parameters offered by the app stores, to make you aware when you are about to incur a non-subscription charge, but Napster is not obligated to do so and hereby disclaims any such obligation. These purchases do not give you ownership of any content. Credits may also be granted to your account without any purchase on your part, based on your activity within the Services. Purchased credits will be redeemed before granted credits.
Napster may offer you a free trial period during which you can try out the Services for free (a “Free Trial”). Napster has complete control over the parameters of Free Trials, but they will be communicated to you clearly upon registration. Your Free Trial may be combined with another offer, such as a discounted price for the first month or two of a subscription after your Free Trial. We have sole discretion to determine your eligibility for a Free Trial. Some Free Trials may be based on a number of plays rather than a period of time.
Some Free Trials of subscription-based Services require that you provide us with a payment method prior to initiating the Free Trial. In such cases, you agree that if you have not cancelled your subscription prior to the expiration of your Free Trial, your registered payment method will be automatically charged and your subscription will begin on the first day after the expiration of your Free Trial. If you do cancel your subscription prior to the expiration of your Free Trial, your Free Trial will continue until its designated expiration, but you will not be charged. If your Free Trial does not require you to provide a payment method, you will lose your free access to the Services at the expiration of the Free Trial unless you register for a subscription during the Free Trial, in which case, your payment method will be charged and your subscription will begin on the first day following the expiration of your Free Trial.
The Napster Family Plan shall be considered part of the Services and subject to the Napster Terms of Use.
The Napster Family Plan grants the primary account holder and up to five family members access to subsidiary accounts to the Napster Family Plan service from the moment that you activate the master account by submitting your user account information and payment details. By submitting your user account information and payment details, you (i) consent to Napster using your user account information and payment details in accordance with our Privacy Policy, and (ii) acknowledge and agree to the terms and condition of this section. The primary account holder may add or cancel subsidiary accounts.
In order to be eligible for the Napster Family Plan, the primary account holder and the subsidiary account holders must be family members residing at the same address. The subsidiary account holders will be asked to verify this upon activation.
Napster reserves the right to terminate or suspend access to the Napster Family Plan at any time pursuant to the Napster Terms of Use or if you fail to meet the eligibility criteria. Upon cancellation of your family plan account you will receive an offer from Napster to activate other Napster Services.
If you are a holder of a Napster Premier account, by joining the Napster Family Plan you acknowledge and agree that no refunds are available for changing from your current Premier plan before the end of your paid subscription period. You will switch immediately to the Napster Family Plan service and your access to the Premier service will remain uninterrupted.
Napster may offer you a Free Trial of the Family Plan service. If you have subscribed to a Free Trial of any of the Services within the previous 12 months, you will not be eligible to receive a Free Trial of the Napster Family Plan service. For the avoidance of doubt, subsidiary account holders who activated their accounts during a Free Trial period are still eligible to subscribe to a Free Trial within a 12 month period.
If you are currently subscribed to the Napster family plan Service that was made available before December 16, 2020 and wish to sign up to the new Napster Family Plan Service, please contact Napster customer support at
Occasionally, we may offer the chance to participate in sweepstakes, contests, surveys, and special offerings (“Special Promotions”) through the Services. Special Promotions may be governed by terms and conditions that are separate from this Agreement. If the provisions of a Special Promotion’s terms and conditions conflict with this Agreement, those separate terms and conditions shall govern the Special Promotion unless expressly stated otherwise.
If you subscribe to the Services directly through Napster, you may cancel your subscription at any time. Instructions on how to do so are available on our website and mobile apps, or you may contact
If you cancel your subscription, you will still have access to the Services until the end of the then-current subscription period for which you had previously paid (e. week, month, or year). At that point your subscription will end and your payment method will no longer be charged. If you are using the Services without a subscription, you may stop using them at any time. Napster will not provide any cash refund for any payment you have made for subscriptions, credits, or other purchases unless required to do so by applicable law.
If you subscribe to the Services through a Partner, you must contact the Partner to cancel your subscription, as that Partner may have additional terms and conditions that govern your termination (for example, your access to the Services may be tied to your access to telephone service provided by the Partner).
We will continue to maintain your account after the termination of your subscription, so you can continue to access your information, such as your playlists, and use any free Services we may offer. You may also re-subscribe at any later time, and your information will be right where you left it. You have the right to request that we permanently delete all personally identifiable information associated with your account. To make such a request, please contact
We, in our sole discretion, with or without prior notice, and regardless of any agreement you may have with one of our Partners through which you access the Services, may freeze or terminate your account, user name, password, user profile, or use of the Services for any reason, including, without limitation, if we believe that you have infringed upon any rights of another, including intellectual property rights, or violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of this Agreement, the Napster
Privacy Policy, the Napster
End User Licence Agreement, applicable law (including copyright infringement), or for any other reason.
We may also, in our sole discretion and with or without prior notice, modify or discontinue the provision of any of the Services, or may terminate your access to the Services for convenience. You will be entitled either to continued access to the Services until the end of your then-current billing period, or to a pro-rated refund for any unused period for which you have previously paid, at our discretion. Napster will not be liable to you or any third party for any interference or termination of your access to the Service. If we terminate your access to the Services, we will notify you as soon as possible.
We offer various tiers of the Services, with different features and prices for each. Unless restricted by the Partner through which you access the Services, you may change your Service tier at any time through our website or mobile apps, or by contacting
Any upgrade or downgrade will be effective immediately, and you will be awarded a credit in the pro-rated amount that you have already paid for the period remaining on your current billing period. Your Billing Date will change, and you will be immediately charged for any fees for your new tier of service in excess of any credit you have been awarded. Your credit will continue to be used up until your credit balance is zero, at which point your payment method will be charged.
All fees paid and charges made prior to termination as provided herein, including any advance charge or payment for the subscription term during which you terminate your subscription, are non-refundable, except as provided herein. Termination of your subscription shall not relieve you of any obligations to pay accrued and outstanding charges. However, except in unusual circumstances such as fraud or severe violation of the terms of this Agreement, you will be entitled to use the Services for the period for which you have paid in advance, even if you terminate your subscription early.
We will provide a summary of any transaction that requires payment before you are obligated to pay. Review the summary carefully and correct any errors you find before finalizing your request.
All payments processed by Napster must be made by an approved payment method, such as a credit card, which will be indicated at the time you provide your payment method. We do not accept cash or checks. As between you and Napster, you are responsible for paying any amounts for services billed to your payment method by a third party who had access to your payment method (including your credit card number), whether or not such amounts were authorized by you. You agree to pay all fees and charges incurred in connection with your account (including any applicable taxes) at the rates in effect when the charges were incurred. If Napster does not receive payment from your payment method issuer or its agent, you agree to pay all amounts due upon demand by Napster.
If you access or subscribe to the Services through one of our Partners, your direct billing relationship will be with that Partner, not Napster. Charges for in-app purchases will be made by the applicable app store, not by Napster. In these cases, you should consult the terms of the applicable Partner for additional information about payments. Napster disclaims any responsibility or liability for the processing of any of these purchases.
Your account may be deactivated without notice to you if payment is past due, regardless of the amount of money that you owe. You agree to pay any outstanding balance in full within 30 days of cancellation or termination of your subscription.
Unless stated otherwise, if you subscribe to the Services in the United States or Canada, prices exclude all applicable taxes, and outside of the United States and Canada, prices include all applicable taxes. Napster collects any applicable taxes at the rate in effect at the time your transaction is completed. Contact
if you believe your transaction is exempt from tax.
Napster may seek authorization of your payment method to validate your ability to pay the applicable fees prior to the first purchase by making a small charge that may reduce your available credit by the authorization amount until your bank’s next processing cycle. Napster may validate your name, address, and other personal information you provide during the registration process against the databases of appropriate third parties, including, without limitation, registered credit reporting and fraud-prevention agencies, which may keep records of this type of information. Accepting this Agreement and the Napster
and
End User Licence Agreement
means you consent to this verification.
Modifications to Fees or Billing Terms
At any time, Napster may change the fees and/or billing methods applicable to any of the Services. We will give you at least 30 days’ notice (by email or in-app notification) prior to the effective date of any such change applicable to a subscription for which we automatically charge your payment method each billing period. If any such change is unacceptable to you, you may terminate your subscription by contacting
Your continued use of the Services following the effective date of a change to fees or billing methods shall constitute your acceptance of such change.
If you subscribe to or access the Services directly through Napster, Napster is solely responsible for billing and payment issues related to your account. Contact Napster customer service at
If your access to the Services is billed through one of our Partners, that Partner is solely responsible for billing issues related to your subscription, and you should contact them for customer service related to billing and payment issues.
Regardless of who maintains your billing relationship, Napster is responsible for all customer service issues other than billing and payment, including technical help and issues related to your account. Contact Napster customer service at
The Services, including the available content, our web sites, and our mobile applications (collectively, the “Content”), are the property of Napster or its licensors and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Except as expressly provided in this Agreement, you are not granted any rights or license to patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, or moral rights with respect to the Services or the Content. Napster and its licensors reserve all rights not expressly granted under this Agreement. Except as necessary to use the Services, you agree not to (i) reproduce, record, retransmit, redistribute, disseminate, sell, rent, lend, broadcast, make available, communicate to the public, publicly perform, adapt, sub-license, circulate to any third party, or create derivative works of the Content, (ii) use any automated system for the selection, download, streaming, or electronic distribution of Content, or (iii) exploit the Content for commercial purposes. Because the Services are designed for personal use, you are not allowed to use any automated system for the selection, download, streaming, or electronic distribution of files.
You agree to indemnify and hold Napster harmless for any claims of infringement of intellectual property rights or any other third-party rights related to your account or User Content you post, in accordance with the terms of Section 9 below.
We respect the intellectual property rights of our artists and content providers. If you are a copyright holder who believes that any content available on the Services infringes upon your rights, please let us know. Notice of alleged copyright infringement should be sent to Napster’s designated copyright agent at the following address (email is preferred):
or
Legal Department
Rhapsody International Inc.
1411 4th Avenue, Suite 1200
Seattle, Washington 98101 USA
A notification of claimed copyright infringement must be addressed to Napster’s copyright agent listed above and substantially include the following:
A physical or electronic signature of the owner (or person authorized to act on behalf of the owner) of the copyright t
Napster was just bought for $70 million – Quartz
The live online music company MelodyVR announced on Aug. 21 that it was acquiring the music streaming company Napster for $70 million. Yes, that Napster. The same one that, if you are of a certain age, you might have used to download music illegally at the turn of the millennium. Its business model morphed over the years, but the Napster brand has never actually died. Today, it is a music streaming service with 3 million original version of Napster burned brightly and briefly. It was created in June 1999 by the brothers Shawn and John Fanning, and founded as a business by Shawn and his friend Sean Parker, later the first president of Facebook. At the time, sharing MP3 files was challenging; the brothers thought they could make sharing a lot easier by giving people access to other users’ hard drives through a peer-to-peer file sharing pster’s software worked and the application became a global sensation. Never before had people had access to so much free music. Though far fewer people were online in 2000, at its zenith, Napster still had about 70 million users globally (by comparison, Spotify has about 290 million today, after 14 years in operation). Napster gave users access to more than 4 million songs; at some universities, traffic from Napster accounted for about half the total 2001, the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the US music industry, sued Napster for facilitating the illegal transfer of copyrighted music. A US court found Napster guilty and told the company that unless it was able to stop that activity on its site, it would have to shut down. Napster couldn’t comply. In June of that year, the company shuttered. Though the original Napster was no more, the software revolutionized the music industry, leading consumers to believe they should have access to whatever music they wanted whenever they wanted, which ultimately led to the rise of subscription streaming apps like ’s been quite a wild ride for the Napster brand since then. After the shutdown, Napster’s brand and logo were acquired by the software maker Roxio at bankruptcy proceeding in 2002. Roxio used the Napster name for their own fledgling streaming service, which was later sold to electronics company Best Buy, who then sold the service to streaming company Rhapsody International. Rhapsody build Napster into a viable streaming company, with $106 million in revenues in lodyVR’s CEO told Rolling Stone that purchasing the current version of Napster will give the company a chance to compete against Spotify and Apple Music in the music streaming space. Founded in 2018, MelodyVR works with musicians and concert promoter Live Nation to stream concerts that can be watched on virtual reality headsets on phones. The British startup lost over $21 million in 2019, but downloads of its app are 10 times higher this year than last, according to the company. By combining Napster’s music streaming services with its original concert content, MelodyVR may be able to offer a different product than the music streaming giants. At the very least, the Napster name will connect their service with digital music history.
How the music industry shifted from Napster to Spotify – Quartz
I, like many American 16-year-olds in the year 2000, had a torrid affair with Napster. I wasn’t particularly tech-savvy, but I quickly figured out the basics. First, I had to download the software to my family’s desktop. Then, I could tell Napster that I wanted to make a digital copy of a certain song. The free service would find another person’s computer that had that song, and my computer would begin downloading a copy. After the file finished downloading, I could listen on Winamp—the music software I used at the time—and the quality was generally quite good. (Its simplicity was part of the sell; other, similar software existed but felt more complicated. )My dad didn’t like my Napster habit. Understandably, he thought it was stealing. Most of those songs were not licensed for free distribution. I knew it was wrong, too. I wasn’t some anarchist, “screw capitalism! ” kid, but I knew it was hurting bands I liked, some of them not yet my dad and I made a deal. If I downloaded three tracks off an album, I had to buy it. This way maybe Napster would actually make me spend more money on music. Napster gave me access to a larger number of albums I could sample, and if I really liked one, I would purchase the CD at the local Sam Goody music store, where I worked for a few months in high school. I didn’t really follow the rules. I remember buying a few albums based on our agreement, but I also cheated a lot (sorry Dad). It was too hard to deny myself the free music then, and it would probably be too much for me today. I was not alone in finding Napster’s music sharing irresistible. Starting around 2000, US music revenue fell off a cliff—from a peak of $21 billion in 1999 (in 2018 dollars) to about $7 billion in 2014, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America. Few industries have ever experienced such in large part to Napster and its ilk, music had become a public good, and there was no putting the cat back in the bag. Although Napster would get shut down, Spotify and Apple Music did eventually capitalize on how technology changed music from a scarce resource, to one that we all expected to have for free. The repercussions for who could succeed in the music industry would be pster burned brightly and briefly. It was created in 1999 by the brothers Shawn and John Fanning, and founded as a business by Shawn and his friend Sean Parker, later the first president of Facebook. At the time, sharing MP3 files was challenging and the brothers thought they could make sharing a lot easier by giving people access to other users’ hard service only existed as a peer-to-peer file sharing service from June 1999 to July 2001, but it caught on like wildfire. The internet was far less commonly used in 2000, but at its zenith, Napster still had about 70 million users globally (by comparison, Spotify has about 220 million today, after 13 years in operation). Napster gave users access to more than 4 million songs; at some universities, traffic from Napster accounted for about half the total bandwidth. Downloaded files from Napster sometimes brought computer viruses with them, but many, like myself, were willing to take on the a few artists, like Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy, defended Napster for making music more accessible, most of the music industry hated it because its popularity meant they were losing money. The 20th century music industry was predicated on the idea of selling physical recordings of music—records, tapes, or CDs (live performances were a secondary source of income). At the time, CD album sales were at their absolute peak in the US, making up about $19 billion of the $21 billion in sales in pster was a company with a popular software in search of a revenue model, one it would never get the chance to pster was eventually shut down in 2001 due to lawsuit by the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the US music industry. A US court found Napster was facilitating the illegal transfer of copyrighted music, and was told that unless it was able to stop that activity on its site, it would have to shutdown. Napster couldn’t comply. (After the shutdown, Napster’s brand and logo were acquired. They are now used by a small, but profitable, music streaming service owned by the media company RealNetworks, but the product is unrelated to the original Napster. )But peer-to-peer music sharing did not just disappear. Sites like Lime Wire and Kazaa continued in Napster’s footsteps, and then also eventually were shut down. The global music industry would fight the softwares through the uters/Lou DematteisNapster co-founder Shawn Fanning battled the record industry in court in the abyss, Spotify appeared. Daniel Ek, the co-founder and CEO of Spotify, has said that Spotify, launched in 2008, is a direct byproduct of his love for Napster, and his desire to create a similar experience for users. “It came back to me constantly that Napster was such an amazing consumer experience, and I wanted to see if it could be a viable business, ” Ek told the New Yorker in 2014. He says he thought he could create a “better product than piracy” by making streaming so fast that you wouldn’t even notice the loading time. He would avoid the trap that Napster fell into by getting music labels to agree to have their songs on his platform. To fund operations and licensing costs, he would sell advertising between songs (subscriptions were not originally part of the model), making music “free” like on Napster, but his program would be even easier to use and less likely to give you a computer virus. He thought his company would help save a declining music industry, and help people “discover better music. ”At least this is the story Ek tells. The authors of the 2019 book Spotify Teardown, an academic examination of rise of Spotify, say something very different happened. The book, written by a group of Swedish media studies professors, historians, and programmers, contends that Spotify was simply an opportunistic application of a technology that Ek developed, rather than effort to save the music industry. “It came back to me constantly that Napster was such an amazing consumer experience, and I wanted to see if it could be a viable business. ”Ek, who had been the CEO of the piracy platform uTorrent, founded Spotify with his friend, another entrepreneur named Martin Lorentzon. Both—Ek at 23 and Lorentzon 37—were already millionaires from the sales of previous businesses. The name Spotify had no particular meaning, and was not associated with music. According to Spotify Teardown, the company developed a software for improved peer-to-peer network sharing, and the founders spoke of it as a general “media distribution platform. ” The initial choice to focus on music, the founders said at the time, was because audio files are smaller than video files, not because of a dream of saving 2007, when Spotify first publicly tested its software, it allowed users to stream songs downloaded from The Pirate Bay, a service for unlicensed downloads. By late 2008, Spotify would convince music labels in Sweden to license music to the site, and unlicensed music was removed. From there, Spotify would take off across Europe and then the, Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora dominate the music streaming economy. These companies‘ products are similar to Napster in that users can access nearly any song they wish. But unlike Napster, customers of these services pay for them—either directly, via a subscription (most are about $10 per month in the US), or indirectly, by listening to advertisements between songs. Users also don’t actually have physical or digital copies of the music, so they could lose access to it at any moment if streaming services were shut down or if they lost access to it may not have been Ek’s intention to “save” the music industry, his company might have done so by showing the viability of streaming. Because some of the revenue from streaming companies is sent on to labels, the music industry has finally started making money again. From a nadir of about $7 billion in revenue in 2014 (in 2018 dollars), US revenue rose to almost $10 billion in 2018. That is still less than half of the money the industry was making in 1999, but it’s progress everyone has gained equally from streaming, though. The way streaming sites pay musicians tends to favor pop artists. Artists are paid by the stream; so a seven-minute jazz song earns an artist the same payout as a three-minute pop song (the money is funneled through record labels to the artist). Another factor that hurts less popular artists is that streaming services use “pro-rata” payment systems—all of the money generated from advertisements and subscriptions is put into a big pot and split up by the share of streams each artist gets in total. Studies suggest this model of payment hurts jazz and classical musicians compared to a “user-centric” system in which the revenue from each user is split up and given just to the artists they listen to. Spotify negotiates this payment arrangement with the large record studios, the details of which are not reaming seems like it is here to stay. Spotify and Apple Music are increasingly popular, and the music industry is not actively seeking a new method of selling music. Although the audio quality on Spotify isn’t as high as downloads or records, it is good enough to satisfy the average listener, and is likely to improve. Of course people also thought previous technologies, such as the CD, couldn’t be beat, and then something better came along. Perhaps advances in virtual and augmented reality, or 5G, will lead to ways of consuming music we can’t even for now, we have streaming, and it is almost certainly better for most artists than the wild world of Napster. Napster taught music listeners that they deserve all the world’s music at their fingertips. Creating rules for a music industry in which that is true but also serves artists well is a nearly impossible task.
Frequently Asked Questions about napster help
How do I contact Napster customer service?
Contact Napster customer service at [email protected]. If your access to the Services is billed through one of our Partners, that Partner is solely responsible for billing issues related to your subscription, and you should contact them for customer service related to billing and payment issues.
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Login to account.napster.com with your username and password and select the plan that you would like to subscribe.Sign in to My Account.Click “Edit” next to “Account Status”Click “Select Plan”Confirm or re-enter payment details if prompted.
Does Napster exist?
Its business model morphed over the years, but the Napster brand has never actually died. Today, it is a music streaming service with 3 million users. … Napster gave users access to more than 4 million songs; at some universities, traffic from Napster accounted for about half the total bandwidth.Aug 28, 2020
