One of the music industry's most infamous brand names is set to appear among London's stock listings – almost a quarter of a century after it threatened to bankrupt the music business. 

Napster hit the headlines in 1999 as the first famous peer-to-peer music sharing service, enabling users to freely share their relatively new MP3 files over private networks – and bypassing furious record companies. 

Now, the Napster name is to be listed from Monday on London's Alternative Investment Market alongside household names such as ASOS, Boohoo.com and Fever-Tree. The company underwent a $70 million takeover last summer by a British music tech firm MelodyVR, and shareholders voted on Thursday to change the group's name to Napster.

READ MORE

Chinese boxer challenges Anthony Joshua

Miss the commute? You're not alone

Worried about an asteroid hitting the Earth?

MelodyVR films and streams music concerts for fans to watch via virtual reality headsets. It has hosted performances by acts including Emeli Sande, Cypress Hill, Post Malone, John Legend and Khalid – and enjoyed a strong 2020 as the pandemic forced fans into online entertainment with the live music industry put on hiatus.

The idea now is to create an immersive music platform combining those live performances with Napster's library of 90 million licensed tracks – not to mention its 3 million registered users. 

Napster's mixed history

After scandalizing an unprepared music industry with the reality of freely shared digital music tracks, Napster was brought to heel early this century by a succession of court cases over copyright infringement, with heavy hitters like Metallica and Dr Dre among the litigants. 

Napster closed its file-sharing service in 2001 and began attempts to legitimize its offering by striking digital distribution deals with record companies. 

However, a planned $85m sale to German media firm Bertelsmann, which wanted to set it up as a subscription service, collapsed in 2002 when an American bankruptcy judge forced Napster to liquidate its assets. 

Ownership of the Napster name later passed through various owners including Roxio and Best Buy, as the brand was re-established as a subscription streaming service. Now its latest owners want to move it into a new immersive sphere, boosted by up to $14m of investment. 

"We are looking forward to rebranding as Napster," said MelodyVR CEO Anthony Matchett, who will now become CEO of Napster, which is relaunching its app later this year. "This funding will support the development of our new Napster music service throughout the course of 2021."