Napster, the name once synonymous with digital music disruption, is returning to the tech spotlight — this time as an artificial intelligence (AI) company.
Infinite Reality, which acquired Napster for $207 million earlier this year, announced it is rebranding as Napster Corporation and launching a new AI division aimed at transforming how users interact with the web. Infinite Reality is a firm known for its immersive digital media and spatial computing technologies.
The move marks a striking evolution for a brand once at the center of one of the internet’s earliest and most polarizing legal battles.
Founded in 1999, the original Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing service that allowed users to freely exchange MP3 music files. It ignited a cultural and legal firestorm, drawing lawsuits from the music industry and major artists like Metallica. Though the service was shut down in 2001, its legacy paved the way for today’s digital music landscape. It also defined a generation’s relationship with online media.
Now, that legacy is being reimagined.
Napster gets an AI-centered rebrand
Infinite Reality’s rebrand to Napster Corp. is more than symbolic. It comes alongside the debut of Napster AI, a new business unit, and Napster Spaces, a platform that enables users to convert static websites into interactive AI-driven environments. These “spaces” are built around lifelike, video-based AI agents capable of multilingual conversations, contextual memory, and user guidance across sales, support, and education.
The technology is based in part on Touchcast, a company Infinite Reality plans to acquire for $500 million. Touchcast brings enterprise-grade AI tools and a patent portfolio that supports scalable, energy-efficient generative services — critical infrastructure as AI use cases multiply across industries.
According to CEO John Acunto, Napster designed the rebrand to channel its original “challenger spirit” into a new wave of disruption. This time, it’s not in music but in how people experience the web.
“We’re not just launching another product,” Acunto said. “We’re redefining how brands connect with audiences through intelligent digital agents.”
Analysts say the timing is strategic. The agentic AI market is projected to grow from $5.2 billion in 2024 to $200 billion by 2034, according to Market.us. Agentic AI refers to systems that act autonomously on behalf of users.
How Napster will use agentic AI
As generative AI tools become more interactive and multimodal, demand is rising for platforms that combine real-time video, language understanding, and brand personalization in a single interface.
Napster Spaces offers three deployment models:
- Full-page
- Embedded
- Agent-only
They give companies flexibility in how they adopt AI-driven interaction. The platform is currently in beta with a free trial offering 500 minutes of video chat. Paid plans begin at $49 per month. That positions Napster competitively in a space where similar offerings can cost 10 times as much.
The rebrand also signals a broader integration effort across Infinite Reality’s portfolio, including Thunder Studios, the Drone Racing League, and spatial computing tools developed under the iR brand. All will soon operate under the Napster name, aligning with a unified strategy to deliver AI-enhanced digital experiences across entertainment, commerce, and enterprise sectors.
“The Napster name still carries cultural weight,” said Sarah Guo, founder of venture firm Conviction and an early investor in enterprise AI platforms. “By pairing that legacy with real-time, embodied AI agents, they’re aiming to make websites as dynamic and responsive as apps — or even humans.”
Still, she cautioned, trust and usability will be critical.
“Agentic AI is powerful, but it’s early,” she said. “If it’s clunky or inauthentic, users won’t engage. Napster’s challenge will be making the technology invisible and the experience intuitive.”
James Currier, a general partner at NFX and longtime observer of internet platforms, said the move reflects a broader shift in how brands are thinking about their digital presence.
“We’re moving from a read-only web to a conversation-driven one,” he said. “If Napster can make AI feel less like a tool and more like a teammate, they could be onto something.”
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