Napster Appoints Former Roblox Exec John Vlassopulos as CEO – Billboard

Former Roblox vp and global head of music Jonathan Vlassopulos has joined Napster as CEO, the corporation introduced Sunday (Sept. 25).

Vlassopulos, who departed Roblox in April after three years, became recognised for shaping the company’s reducing-edge virtual live performance strategy in the early times of the pandemic, with the platform web hosting blockbuster virtual demonstrates for artists like Lil Nas X, Tai Verdes, Twenty A person Pilots and 24KGoldn. He also navigated Roblox through a rough patch just after the company was sued by the National Music Publishers’ Affiliation (NMPA) for copyright infringement in June 2021. The two get-togethers settled the $200 million lawsuit a few months later and launched talks for go-forward licensing discounts.

Vlassopulos joins Napster 4 months right after the business — which commenced in 1999 as a peer-to-peer file-sharing service that by itself ran afoul of the audio field — was acquired by Internet3 corporations Hivemind and Algorand, with plans to carry the extensive-functioning brand into the World-wide-web3 place.

“In our early discussions with Jon, we swiftly realized his eyesight of building a contemporary, new, and social on the internet new music support centered around connecting artists and followers in new strategies. Leveraging Net3 technology, aligns perfectly with where by we see Napster heading,” reported W. Sean Ford, interim CEO of Algorand, in a assertion. “We believe that Napster is the ideal brand and system to lead the subsequent generation of the music business that goes past streaming or avatar-pushed virtual concerts. Jon’s strong connectivity with the music sector and huge working experience will give us the vital leadership to make this a truth.”

Vlassopulos added that he is “thrilled to direct a business with these a rich history in the music industry” and “looking ahead to doing work together with the wonderful Napster workforce, our recent and potential partners, labels, artists, publishers, makes, and startups to deliver mainstream fans to Net3.”

Concurrent with Vlassopulos’ employ, Napster also declared a new funding spherical, with participation from existing traders and new backers such as Hivemind, Algorand, SkyBridge Funds, Alumni Ventures, Borderless Capital and G20. The revenue will be employed to “accelerate” the company’s Internet3 initiatives.

“We are fired up for Napster to be a central participant in the Tunes World-wide-web3 ecosystem,” mentioned Matt Zhang, founder and taking care of partner of Hivemind. “We seem ahead to rallying all the remarkable innovation that has transpired to day so we can all collectively generate mainstream adoption of Internet3 know-how for the music marketplace.”

In addition, Napster declared the launch of an artist improvement fund that will assist aid the marketing and advertising and launch of artist Website3 initiatives globally.

Vlassopulos begun his audio vocation as a DJ right before pivoting to work for BMG and Bertelsmann, wherever he led many of the company’s early electronic initiatives and investments, like doing work on the initial Napster file-sharing services more than 20 a long time back. He afterwards moved to AT&T Wi-fi, in which he released a cell audio services, in advance of managing the electronic and branded entertainment divisions at Television manufacturing business Endemol. He subsequently served as CEO of cellular entertainment advertising and marketing and advertising and marketing agency Skyrockit right before becoming a member of Roblox in 2019. In June, he joined the advisory board of Dubit, a metaverse games designer centered in the U.K.