Like a phoenix, rising from the ashes of the 1990s!

Remember Napster? That one-time global monstrosity that helped teens and young adults build their musical libraries into drawer filling archives, all at the click of a button and at a cost of nothing? As it turns out, it’s not dead yet, and is trying to make a comeback — in Canada anyway …

After its bankruptcy auction some time ago, Napster went through a series of changes with various companies, each attempting to use the power of the logo and brand name to launch a legal streaming site the likes of Apple Music and Spotify. Eventually down the road of owner-swapping, the service was bought by Best Buy, which also owns Rhapsody, and the two merged in 2011 to form the current incarnation its in.

It’s a form trying to take over places other than the US — with obvious reasons being it would be impossible to compete with the likes of Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music … shit, even TIDAL would probably kick its ass right now. But Canada? Napster thinks it can do Canada.

A report on Yahoo claims the site’s relaunch comes at about a $7.65 (US) a month pay structure, with access to more than 35 million songs, both online and offline. It’s a service available on the iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Web, Sonos, and Chromecast platforms — but not if you’re stateside. This is only for Canadians, eh?

“It was important to us that we enter Canada with a personalized music experience that has a complete catalog of local, national and international artists," says Napster CFO Ethan Rudin in a statement.

What does this mean for us here in 'Merica? Well, absolutely fucking nothing. We don't think there's a company out there that's stupid enough to enter the streaming arena here with the way it is now, and try to compete with massive companies like Apple and Spotify. Except for that TIDAL thing, that was pretty dumb. But it goes to show you how powerful a brand can be with a sordid history, a goofy logo and some assets. Best Buy bought Napster for $121 million in 2008, with the original creators having nothing to do with it for the last decade after going bankrupt. That's crazy. Business is crazy.