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Jonathan Vlassopulos

CEO of Napster, Active Board Member and Early Stage Investor

Jonathan Vlassopulos

Jonathan Vlassopulos is the Chief Executive Officer of Napster, the longest running independent music streaming service in the world.1 He was named CEO in September 2022 and is leading the iconic brand at a time when Web3 music has the opportunity to take over from the current streaming era.1

Prior to becoming CEO of Napster, Vlassopulos served as the VP, Global Head of Music at Roblox from August 2019 to the present.1 In this role, he led the company's initiatives and partnerships with record labels, publishers, management companies, artists, brands and music startups.1 He focused on entertaining and engaging Roblox's community of more than 50M+ daily active users with music, allowing them to express themselves and connect with their favorite artists and friends in new and unprecedented ways.1

Vlassopulos has also founded several companies, including:

  • Tribalist - a "Pinterest for Lists" platform to discover, curate and create shoppable lists of what you love1
  • Fabric - a "want-to-list for everything you love to do"1

He is also an angel investor in companies like Inworld AI, which develops AI-powered characters for the metaverse.1

Vlassopulos has over 20 years of experience in the technology and music industries, previously holding roles at AT&T Wireless, Bertelsmann, and BMG.1 He is fluent in multiple languages including English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, German and Japanese.1

Highlights

May 16 · linkedin

Excited to announce the first ever live chat with an artist in the metaverse done by a major DSP! Happening at 2pm EST today on Napster! That's right now... you can get access from this link https://lnkd.in/erCApc6V

Ric Wilson will be hanging out talking about his new album and answering fan questions live. He is one of my favorite new artists, he's out of Chicago and is somewhere between an Anderson Paak, Bruno Mars and Jungle vibe. To my old metaverse colleague and music friends, please hop in and chat with Ric and let us know what you think of the experience. You can also get physical and digital merch. This is just the beginning, we are looking to expand this opportunity to many more artists over the coming months enabling them to connect and engage with their fans in more creative and fun ways. If you're a label or artist please DM me if you're interested in chatting. See you all in the Discoverse!

Thanks to Marcus Majors, Ric's manager, for being such a fantastic creative partner with Ric. Thanks to our Napster team Bill Volpe Brea Gaudioso John Lanyon Matt Turnbull Daniel Bondurant Chloe Madison and others for pulling this together alongside our partners at TerraZero Brandon F. Johnson Dan Reitzik

#metaverse #music #superfans #livechat #interactive #DSP #spotify #napster

Dean Takahashi Morgan Tucker Adam Arrigo Yonatan Raz-Fridman

Jan 17 · linkedin

Very excited to announce the launch of our new metaverse experiences for artists on Napster. Today is just the beginning, so many exciting things to come!

We are now live with our first artist, the amazingly talented Ric Wilson from Chicago. This was a partnership with the expert team at TerraZero, shout out to Dan Reitzik Brandon F. Johnson and their team for being fantastic partners for this launch.

Having built some of the most successful virtual experiences for artists like Lil Nas X, twentyone pilots, David Guetta and many more, I have always wanted to create virtual spaces that ALL artists could have access to, from the smallest indie artists to the biggest superstars. I imagined a 3D immersive space that was templatized but could be customized to the artist's personal style, where they could chat to their fans, release new songs, play their music in a 3D environment, sell digital and physical goods and even perform. Ideally the spaces were free to create so there was no friction and they should be accessible from a browser. This vision is now a reality. We are looking to roll out to more artists over the coming months and Ric will be dropping his new single in his Discoverse hangout next month.

Spotify has more than 6K people, we offer basically the same product experience with around 100 people. Napster is going back to our rebellious roots just in time for our 25th anniversary! We are committed to delivering a fresh, new experience for artists and fans that you won't be able to get elsewhere. It is high time for some major innovation, beyond price increases, in the DSP space. Stay tuned for more announcements coming soon and if you are someone who wants to shake things up as a partner or a team mate, please DM me! We are on a mission and need the best of the best!

Steven Kokinos Matt Zhang Mike Shuckerow Bill Volpe John Lanyon Matt Turnbull

PS - Morgan Tucker Philippe Clavel - it wasn't the same without you and thanks to Dean Takahashi for the write up

#napster #metaverse #immersiveexperience #musicindustry #spotify

Related Questions

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Jonathan Vlassopulos
Jonathan Vlassopulos, photo 1
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Experience

CEO of Napster since September 2022
VP, Global Head Of Music at Roblox; Founder and CEO at Tribalist; Managing Partner at A-Force Ventures

Education

Studied Chinese, Economics and Korean at Durham University

Location

Nashville Metropolitan Area