In the late ‘90s, the web was taking the world by storm, and by 1998, the first MP3 players had been introduced to the world. Whereas previously, you could only listen to music from a physical recording like a record, cassette tape, or compact disc, now there was this whole new world of digital recordings that could be housed on your computer or an MP3 player. It was only a matter of time until someone figured out a way to share those MP3s with one another, and no one was more successful in the beginning than Napster.
Napster began in the mind of Shawn Fanning, and was originally conceived as a peer-to-peer file sharing service. Essentially meaning, you could share files with your friends for free. He met Sean Parker online as a teenager, where they bonded over hacking and discussions of theoretical physics (typical teenager talk, naturally), and when Fanning was a student at Northeastern University, they co-founded Napster together. Parker helped raise the initial funds whereas Fanning created the product itself. It all came together when Napster launched to the public for free in June 1999, and nothing in the music industry would ever be the same.
Though there were other file-sharing services online at the time, none of them specialized in MP3 music or had a very user-friendly design. As such, Napster became instantly popular, particularly among college students — as much as 61% of external network traffic in college dormitories at the time consisted of MP3 file transfers. While all of this was well and good for poor college kids wanting to get music for free, it soon drew the ire of music artists and recording labels, who quickly filed copyright infringement lawsuits against the company.
You may remember Metallica in particular being a driving force behind this movement against Napster. They found out that a demo of their song “I Disappear” was on Napster prior to its release, which alerted them to the fact that all of their other music was also being distributed as well. Soon enough, several record labels also were filing lawsuits against Napster, and what was once a meteoric rise in popularity the likes of which had never been seen before quickly came to a grinding halt. Though Napster tried to fight these lawsuits, in the end they lost, and were forced to shut down their service in July 2001. Did you realize that all of the Napster drama happened in just two short years? It seemed like it was around much longer than that, right?
Still, Napster started a revolution within the music industry. The cat had been let out of the bag, and though Napster had been shut down, other file-sharing services were quickly popping up to take its place (remember Soulseek and Limewire?). Some indie artists even thought that it helped them in the long run, giving a larger audience to those who never would have had a shot at popularity before. One such artist who may have been helped by Napster was Radiohead, whose Kid A album had been circulating on the service for months before its official release in October 2000. No singles were released for the album and it received little airplay, yet anticipation was high prior to the album’s release, and some have speculated that it gained its number one spot on the Billboard 200 sales chart in its debut week in part because it had been distributed on Napster already.
Though Napster was shut down in 2001, the brand lives on today. Napster was bought by Roxio in 2002, and by 2008 it was purchased by Best Buy to merge with their music subscription service Rhapsody. Rhapsody even changed their name to Napster in 2016 because of the brand’s name recognition. But, in August 2020, Napster was bought again by Melody VR, a virtual reality concert company based in London. Their plan is to create the first music entertainment platform that combines immservie video content with music streaming. Will Napster be able to disrupt the music industry again with this new merger? Only time will tell.
Were you a Napster fan during its two year run? What do you remember most about it? Let us know in the comments!
- Why was it called Napster? According to Shawn Fanning, he gained the nickname in high school due to his “nappy” hair.
- Co-founder Sean Parker was instrumental in another disruptive online service, one you might have heard of — Facebook. He was the first President of the company, and was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the 2010 film about Facebook’s founding, The Social Network.
- Shawn Fanning appeared at the 2000 MTV Music Video Awards wearing a Metallica t-shirt shortly following Metallica’s lawsuit against the company. When asked where he got the shirt, he replied, “I borrowed it from a friend.”
- At the height of its popularity in February 2001, Napster had around 26.4 million verified users worldwide, which is said to have been around 85% of the worldwide online population at the time.
- The 2013 documentary film Downloaded delves into the history of the downloading revolution, the creators, and those who were affected by it. Both Fanning and Parker appear in the film. The documentary was directed by Alex Winter, who you may remember as Bill from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
- Why was it called Napster? According to Shawn Fanning, he gained the nickname in high school due to his “nappy” hair.
- Co-founder Sean Parker was instrumental in another disruptive online service, one you might have heard of — Facebook. He was the first President of the company, and was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the 2010 film about Facebook’s founding, The Social Network.
- Shawn Fanning appeared at the 2000 MTV Music Video Awards wearing a Metallica t-shirt shortly following Metallica’s lawsuit against the company. When asked where he got the shirt, he replied, “I borrowed it from a friend.”
- At the height of its popularity in February 2001, Napster had around 26.4 million verified users worldwide, which is said to have been around 85% of the worldwide online population at the time.
- The 2013 documentary film Downloaded delves into the history of the downloading revolution, the creators, and those who were affected by it. Both Fanning and Parker appear in the film. The documentary was directed by Alex Winter, who you may remember as Bill from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
