When you compete against giants like Spotify, Apple and Google, what’s a music streaming service to do?
Rhapsody opted to go for the name-change route: it is now Napster. Yep, you heard right. Rhapsody is rebranding itself as the early-2000s file-sharing (read: music piracy) service, perhaps playing on millennial nostalgia. As it turns out, Rhapsody has owned the name of Napster since December of 2011.
Other than that, though, everything else about the service will stay the same: “No changes to your playlists, favorites, albums, and artists,” says a blog post on the site. “Same music. Same service. Same price. 100% the music you love. Stay tuned!”
While the artist formerly known as Rhapsody saw a 35 percent increase in paid subscribers last year, CEO Mike Davis also confirmed that lay-offs will occur in the future, according to The Verge.