Tech firm Infinite Reality — which specializes in AI-powered 3D immersive experiences — has agreed to pay $207 million for Napster, the 26-year-old music streaming service. The sellers are crypto investment firm Hivemind Capital Partners and blockchain firm Algorand, that acquired the platform in 2022. Infinite Reality is privately held, listing among its investors Liberty Media, Live Nation, MGM, T-Mobile and Barry Diller’s IAC. The company plans to steer Napster to superfan experiences, making it “more immersive, more social, and more shoppable.” Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos, former global music chief at Roblox, will continue in his current post.

“With Infinite Reality’s expertise in immersive 3D technology, we will transform Napster into a next-generation platform where fans don’t just listen on their own — they experience music in entirely new ways,” Vlassopulos explained in the announcement, describing plans for  virtual venues where artists can stage events and fans can socialize.

Although that sounds a lot like what Roblox, Fortnite and Horizon Worlds dabble in, the fact that Napster is a music-first platform could give it an advantage against those social platforms. Variety says an immersive push could also prove a differentiator in the music streaming space, “where it faces far bigger competitors like Spotify, Apple, YouTube and Amazon.”

“This isn’t just a new chapter for Napster, it’s the beginning of a more interactive and social music experience for the next era of the Internet,” is how Vlassopulos sees it.

Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker when they were both 19, Napster got its start as a peer-to-peer file sharing service and spent its early years litigating and losing to the record companies before filing for bankruptcy in 2002.

Today, Napster is “a fully licensed independent music service” that “delivers over 110 million high fidelity tracks” to subscribers globally, reports VentureBeat, noting its new owners call it “the longest operating digital music service.” At the height of its popularity, Napster reached about 85 million people. More recently, it was reported to have about five million users. It currently charges U.S. users $11 per month to subscribe.

“Infinite Reality describes itself as ‘an innovation company powering the next generation of digital media and e-commerce through spatial computing, artificial intelligence and other immersive technologies.’ Whether it can succeed where others have stumbled is another matter,” writes The Register, listing past owners Roxio, RealNetworks and MelodyVR.

An Infinite Reality spokesperson tells The Register that timing is working in its favor, with the world on the verge of Web3 Internet evolution — one that “has been slow, for sure, but AI is likely to speed it up.”