For many millennials, the beep, hiss, and hum of dial-up internet was a necessary prelude to listening to Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" or Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5."
Years before there was on-demand streaming or officially licensed song downloads, Napster shook up the music industry with technology that allowed users to easily share their audio files with other people around the world for free.
Yet, in the comparatively lawless days of these early internet startups, this approach proved to be a little too disruptive when it came to copyright — and the company was soon sued into oblivion.
Even so, it left its mark on modern media distribution — it was Daniel Ek's inspiration for Spotify — and the former piracy platform has since transformed into a modestly sized business that plays by the rules.
Now Napster's story appears to have a new chapter.
It was bought in a $207 million deal announced Tuesday by 3D tech company Infinite Reality — and will be pushing once again into uncharted territory.
Napster now has the licenses to (legally) stream millions of music tracks, and Infinite Reality CEO John Acunto told CNBC the plan is to build virtual spaces for concerts, listening parties, and merch sales.
"When we think about clients who have audiences — influencers, creators — I think it's very important that they have a connected space that's around music and musical communities," Acunto told the outlet. "We just don't see anybody in the streaming space creating spaces for music."
"I think there's no better name than Napster to disrupt," he added.
On social media, the news has millennials at once nostalgic and confused about what's next.
"Napster is still around let alone worth $200 million?… both are news to me," one Reddit user commented.
"What next, you gonna tell me Limewire sold for $100 million??" another said, referring to one of Napster's early competitors.
A slick promotional video says Napster will be the first "immersive, stoppable, social" music streaming platform, though it's not entirely clear how broadly music fans will embrace the concept, given other companies' uneven forays (see: Meta) into virtual reality.
Still, when Napster was first getting started, hardly anyone thought listening to music on your computer was going to be a thing, and the iPhone hadn't even been created. Check back in 25 years, maybe. And don't forget to moisturize.