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The once-iconic music-sharing platform Napster just sold for $207 million, according to reporting by CNBC. A company called Infinite Reality ponied up the cash. What could Napster offer in 2025 to warrant such a price tag? Infinite Reality CEO John Acunto says itll be used for marketing in the metaverse. In other words, a platform from 1999 will be used as part of a technology that seemingly peaked in 2021. That sounds about right. More specifically, the company plans on creating virtual 3D spaces for music fans to attend concerts and listening parties, in addition to creating a sales platform for musicians and labels to sell merch. This isnt the worst idea in the world, as attending these kinds of shared events is probably my favorite aspect of VR. "The most legendary collab?! Infinite Reality has acquired iconic online music brand @Napster.With this acquisition, we're expanding and reimagining Napster, empowering artists with new audience monetization and engagement capabilities, underpinned by iRs #immersive pic.twitter.com/L4Fig7QFct Infinite Reality (@Infinite_iR) March 25, 2025 When we think about clients who have audiences influencers, creators I think its very important that they have a connected space thats around music and musical communities, Acunto said. We just dont see anybody in the streaming space creating spaces for music. Napster holds numerous licenses to stream millions of songs, which is what made it an attractive prospect to Infinite Reality. The company says its version of Napster will disrupt legally. Current Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos says that the purchase will allow artists to create crazy environments that are really only limited by their imaginations. As an example, he described a reggae artist who might enjoy a virtual beach environment. Acunto adds that itll be like Clubhouse times a trillion. Hes referring to the virtual events app that became popular during COVID, but eventually petered out. Infinite Reality has been on a buying spree the last couple of years. In addition to Napster, it purchased the Drone Racing League, the metaverse marketing platform Landvault and the VR shopping platform Obsess. As for Napster, it started in 1999 and took the world by storm, creating an easy-peasy way to steal music. It only took a couple of years for mounting legal battles to catch up to the platform and it declared bankruptcy in 2001. However, that was just the beginning. The software company Roxio purchased the platform in 2002 and relaunched it as a legitimate e-commerce venture that sold digital music files. In 2008, Best Buy came calling and scooped it up. The retail giant only held on to Napster for a few years before selling to Rhapsody in 2011. Rhapsody tried to make Napster a household name in Europe for the next decade before a consortium of blockchain companies, led by Hivemind and Algorand, bought it in 2022. These companies had plans to do some kind of NFT-based nonsense, because music x web3 is one of the most exciting spaces. That didnt work and, well, here we are. Heres to another 25 years of being passed around like a hot potato.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/napster-just-sold-for-207-million-154432315.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Apple plans to start using images it collects for Maps to train its AI models. In a disclosure spotted by 9to5Mac, the company said starting this month it would use images it captures to provide its Look Around feature for the additional purpose of training some of its generative AI models. Look Around is Apple's answer to Google Street View. The company originally released the feature alongside its 2019 revamp of Apple Maps. The tool allows users to see locations from ground level. Apple blurs faces and license plates photographed in Look Around images to protect the privacy of any individuals caught in its survey efforts. "In addition to improving Apple Maps and the algorithms that blur faces and license plates in images published in Look Around feature, Apple also will use blurred imagery collected during surveys conducted beginning in March 2025 to develop and improve other Apple products and services," the company writes in the disclosure. "This includes using data to train models powering Apple products and services, including models related to image recognition, creation, and enhancement." Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget's request for more information. The company's Apple Maps image collection policy page provides a list of regions and dates when it plans to collect new images for Look Around. People can find when Apple's survey crews and vehicles plan to visit their area by sorting by country and then clicking on a specific region. Apple currently offers a few different features that rely on image generation models. Image Playground, for instance, allows owners of Apple Intelligence-compatible devices to write a prompt to create a new image. There's also Clean Up in Photos, which you can use to remove objects from your favorite snapshots. Google has been using Street View images to train AI models for years. In 2017, for example, a pair of researchers from the company trained a machine learning model to generate professional-looking photographs from a dataset collected from Street View. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-will-use-its-street-view-maps-photos-to-train-ai-models-150919972.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
The weather might be getting nicer, but that doesn't reduce the need to sometimes stay home and have cozy nights in front of the TV. That's all the more desirable thanks to the great discounts available for Amazon's Spring Sale. For instance, the newest Amazon Fire TV Stick HD is currently down to $20 from $35. Amazon released the Fire TV Stick HD last October in a move that can best be defined as a rebrand. The company cut its price by $5 (pre-sale) while keeping pretty much all the features of its previous basic streamer. It's also our pick for best budget streaming stick. The Fire TV Stick HD has HDR support and streams with full HD resolution. It also comes with an Alexa-powered remote control, which lets you search for titles with just a click of the Alexa button. That remote also has Netflix and Prime Video buttons, but the device can run most streaming apps, like Disney+ and Peacock. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazon-spring-sale-deals-include-the-fire-tv-stick-hd-for-only-20-144514114.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
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