Appatic

Napster was one of the very first true peer2peer apps -- as in one peer to one peer sharing connected over the internet application -- Then, after all the legal woes and being shuffled around, it then became a music streaming service , that finally was sold to BestBuy for a whooping 121 million dollars 3 years ago. At the time having over 700K paying customers. BestBuy made the service a 5$ a month or 10$ if you wanted mobile access. But let the brand rot by not promoting it enough. To the point where most reading this news will be surprised that Napster was still alive. And even more will be surprised that BestBuy was its owner.

Rhapsody on the other hand is the oldest and biggest streaming music subscription service in the U.S.A. And as of this date, it was working its way to reach the 1 million paying subscribers, at around 850k as of this writing.

While it was not disclosed what was the price BestBuy sold Napster on to Rhapsody. I remember a rumor not that long ago that said Napster had lost over half of their subscribed base. If you take in count that and the stagnation of the brand and service. Based on what was worth with 700K paying customers to BestBuy. I calculate that the selling price had to be anywhere from 25 to 35 million. Let's see if i get it right.

That means Rhapsody will be jumping up to have around 1 million, 250 thousand paying subscribers after the transition is completed. By the time this happens, Spotify should be still around 1 million paying subscribers ahead. Even then, this is still a great deal for the Seattle based Rhapsody.

But a sad destination for Shawn Fanning's Napster. Which without a doubt was one the most groundbreaking internet-enabled apps to grace the 90's, yes, it is from the nineties.