Napster has shaped the musical landscape as we know it today. The platform became especially known for the illegal downloads of that time and laid the foundation for streaming services like iTunes and Spotify. Now, surprisingly, the virtual reality startup MelodyVR is taking over the music streaming service and wants to create a “next-generation” music service.
The focus of the acquisition is to bring together the immersive concert experiences of MelodyVR and the possibilities of music streaming. For the purchase of Napster’s parent company Rhapsody, the virtual reality company put around 70 million US dollars on the table. MelodyVR is a free VR app that allows you to experience live music in the virtual world. Concerts that can be found there, for example, come from the London Symphony Orchestra, the Imagine Dragons and many more.
“The pairing of the two companies represents the pioneers of music streaming and live music VR coming together under one roof. It’s incredibly exciting to be unifying complementary platforms and fantastic audiences, rooted in a love of music and a deep desire to offer the very best experience to artists, fans, the wider music community and brands.”
With the integration of the streaming service, MelodyVR aims to establish a hitherto unique music service that turns both live performances and streaming in virtual space into an experience.
It remains to be seen whether entering the streaming market really makes sense for a virtual reality company. Recently, even the industry giants have been recording losses. Nevertheless, the merger of the two pioneers represents a great opportunity for a breakthrough in the music entertainment segment.
