Goodbye Napster

Napster was an internet peer-to-peer file sharing service, that specialized in sharing audio MP3 files, especially music. It provided a platform where users could easily share their music and download other people's music directly between each other (Cross, Wilson, Walsh, Coen, Smith 2003). Music-lovers regarded it as a music search engine, because it's popularity meant that it had nearly every song in existence. Its main attraction was to college students, who would use it to download music for free. Napster peaked in February 2011 with 26.4 million users. Shortly after, however, it was shut down by court order due to copywrite violations, and many bands and artists like Metallica and Dr Dre pursued legal action also (Lipsman 2001).

Although Napster was shut down, its legacy continues to live on because of its huge influence on the way people use technology to download music for free. Michael Gartenberg, research director at Jupiter Research, said that "Napster may be gone but the legacy that it left behind was millions of users who were exposed to the concept of P-to-P networks. The genie is out of the bottle" (Pruit 2002).  It was the cornerstone for peer-to-peer music sharing, and since it's time, even more formidable music sharing platforms have arisen, such as Kazaa and Limewire. Kazaa emerged in March 2001, and has survived all the way until it's shutdown last month. With a total of 140 million users around the world, and its ability to share not only mp3 files, but also movies, videos and entire CD box sets (Pruit 2002), it is clear that Napster has paved the way for the future of free media on the internet.

References

Cross, S; Wilson, E; Walsh, A; Coen, D; Smith, C 2003, Napster, viewed 1 September 2012, <http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/undergrad/4ba2.02-03/p4.html#ANapsterTimeline>

Lipsman, A 2001, Global Napster Usage Plummets, But New File-Sharing Alternatives Gaining Ground, Reports Jupiter Media Metrix, viewed 1 September 2012, <http://web.archive.org/web/20080413104420/http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?id=249>

Pruit, S 2002, Napster's Legacy Lives On, viewed 4 September 2012, <http://www.pcworld.com/article/104762/napsters_legacy_lives_on.html>