{"id":2261202,"date":"2026-02-01T15:51:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2261202"},"modified":"2026-02-01T15:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T15:51:26","slug":"we-dont-think-that-the-future-of-music-involves-the-labels-anymore-napster-is-back-with-a-new-ai-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/we-dont-think-that-the-future-of-music-involves-the-labels-anymore-napster-is-back-with-a-new-ai-app\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe don\u2019t think that the future of music involves the labels anymore\u201d: Napster is back \u2013 with a new AI app"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p id=\"10848a41-1d4e-456d-8c50-fcba4742b60e\"><strong>Remember Napster? Of course you do. Now the enfant terrible of the early Internet age is back and attempting to muscle in on the AI music race by launching its own AI app. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s slightly different from Suno and Udio in that it involves using a chatbot character so it\u2019s more like interacting with a \u2018real\u2019 AI artist. In a new interview with <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/napster-ai-music-app-lawsuit-streaming-1235505716\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/napster-ai-music-app-lawsuit-streaming-1235505716\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\">Rolling Stone<\/a>, Napster CEO Edo Segal said: \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is create more of an experience. The human experience of interacting with other parties, and a kind of multi-turn creation process, in the same way that humans jam and create stuff together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<aside data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" class=\"hawk-root\"\/>\n<p id=\"10848a41-1d4e-456d-8c50-fcba4742b60e-2\">Interestingly, Segal also said that the new Napster app will be licensing \u201cethically trained\u201d copyright-friendly music generating models. This, of course, contrasts to the company\u2019s approach back in the day, when their whole business model was based on defiance of copyright law.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"clear-both pt-3 pb-4 mb-4 border-solid border-y border-neutral-300\">\n<span class=\"font-article-heading block pb-3 !text-base font-bold uppercase sm:text-sm text-[#333]\"><br \/>\nYou may like<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Much has changed at Napster since then. The brand was bought last year for $207 million by AI firm Infinite Reality. Some $3 billion for the relaunched brand fell through when the investor apparently disappeared and the company still owes Sony an alleged $9.2 in royalties for streaming their catalogue after a licensing agreement was terminated last June.<\/p>\n<p>What remains though, is Napster\u2019s anti-music industry stance. \u201cI think major labels have been a suppressant and a problem in people owning their content, owning their data, and I think they\u2019re continuing to be a suppressant,\u201d says Segal. \u201cSo we just don\u2019t really have an interest in having a relationship with them. We don\u2019t think that the future of music involves the labels anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe old label model is dead. I think we\u2019ve seen that with TikTok and other distribution platforms &#8211; Instagram &#8211; that are doing a much better job at distributing and getting the public aware of music than labels ever have in this new digital age. I just think they\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Segal sees Napster then as now as being on the consumer\u2019s side. \u201cIf you recall, the core of Napster was that I would buy my CD in the store with all 27 tracks on it &#8211; I only wanted one, by the way &#8211; and then I would load that in my computer and I wanted the right to share the things that I owned. I owned it, I bought it, and I felt like I had a right to share it. Napster was attempting to help protect data. The core of our business is truly protecting and preserving data.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-jo6CCDZ85AZG34hJmhECWE\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-jo6CCDZ85AZG34hJmhECWE slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\"\/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>When asked how they would compete with Suno and Udio, who have both struck deals with the major labels, Segal described those as \u201cA very IBM move&#8230; You\u2019ve now allowed the major labels to figure out how they\u2019re going to own the data, own these things. This is the opposite of what we want to do. I want you &#8211; literally you &#8211; to own your data, own the content that you create.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we continue to see are people taking old business models and trying to attach them to new things, and that\u2019s just not how it works. I can\u2019t have a horse and buggy in a car.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicradar.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember Napster? Of course you do. Now the enfant terrible of the early Internet age is back and attempting to muscle in on the AI music race by launching its own AI app. It\u2019s slightly different from Suno and Udio in that it involves using a chatbot character so it\u2019s more like interacting with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2261203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2261202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/We-dont-think-that-the-future-of-music-involves-the.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2261202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2261204,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261202\/revisions\/2261204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2261203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2261202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2261202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2261202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}