Surely, if your adolescence was during the first decade of the 2000s, you have used Torrent and eMule tools intensively. These two programs, designed for file sharing, allowed, among others, to download copyrighted content. What not many people know is that there was a precursor software, such as Napster, although it ended up dying of success.
Nowadays if we want to listen to music we use the Spotify or iTunes applications. If you want to watch a movie or series we have Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, etc. But, there was a time when all these platforms did not exist.
If you wanted to listen to music, you had to buy a record. To see a movie you had to go to the cinema or buy the DVD. If you wanted to watch a series, you had to follow it on television or, if you were lucky, buy it in digital format if you found it. So, the existence of a platform that allowed you to access any content in a while quickly became popular.
Napster, the file sharing software that died of success
Today you have surely passed a photo or video to someone from your WhatsApp agent. Although you may not know it, this is peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, also called peer-to-peer sharing. Simply put, it is a protocol that allows you to transfer a file quickly and easily.
Within P2P there are different types of protocols and software to carry out this file transfer process. In late 1999, programmers Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker developed Napster.
When Fanning had the idea, he was studying at university; in fact, Napster was born as a project within his studies. Fanning’s friend Parker helped him develop and launch this software.
The idea was simple: a tool that will allow users to share files in MP3 format in a simple way. The software he developed was quite simple, allowing the search and download of music.
It had a key aspect and that is that users could directly share the files stored on their computer through a decentralized network. Being a decentralized system, servers were not needed, eliminating infrastructure costs.
Accessing music was extremely easy, so Napster quickly surpassed one million users. Between late 1999 and early 2000, the application already had more than 80 million registered users.
The problems would not take long to arrive. In December 1999, shortly after this software was released, the first legal problem arose. Metallica filed a lawsuit against Naspter after the song “I Disapper” was leaked. Later, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) also filed a lawsuit against this software for facilitating mass music piracy.
They were tough times for the software developers, as they had several legal battles that they lost. Due to all the legal problems, in 2001 they suspended services. Shortly after, in July 2001 they ended up closing.
What happened to Napster?
Despite everything, he had a great impact on the music industry. Quickly, eMule and Torrent emerged as an alternative, which worked in a fairly similar way. Additionally, it showed the music industry a new path, giving rise to services such as iTunes or Spotify.
You should know that Napster has not really disappeared, although it has undergone several transformations. First, it was acquired by Roxio in 2002, a software company that bought the application at auction to transform it into a subscription music service, although it never ended up working.
Napster is currently owned by MelodyVR, who purchased the software in 2020. The idea is to use the technology of this software to create a music streaming platform.
