Napster is an online music store and a Rhapsody company. It was originally founded as a file sharing service. For more information about its founding mission as a free file sharing service, see Napster. The company's name and logo originated from bankruptcy liquidation of the Napster peer-to-peer file trading service, which was shut down after a series of legal actions taken by the RIAA. The brand name was later purchased by Roxio, to capitalize on the popularity of the former service. Napster was later acquired by Best Buy. The service merged with Rhapsody in 2011. Roxio bought the assets of... the original Napster company at its bankruptcy auction in 2002 and the online music service called pressplay in 2003, with the intention of using these assets as the basis of a new legal online music service which would let users access music through a subscription or on a fee-per-song basis. Roxio spent years revamping the company as a non-free online music service. This involved a great deal of management re-organization and the start of a new business model. Roxio spent years developing a network of business partners and relationships to ensure success for their new enterprise.
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