Napster - Origins

Shawn Fanning along with volunteer Sean Parker first released the original Napster in June of 1999. Fanning wanted an easier method of finding music than by searching IRC or Lycos. John Fanning of Hull, Massachusetts, who is Shawn's uncle, ran all aspects of the company's operations for the first year from their office on Nantasket beach. The final agreement gave Shawn 30% control of the company, with the rest going to his uncle. It was the first of the massively popular peer-to-peer file sharing systems, although it was not fully peer-to-pe ...

See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - Cultural references

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Origins

Shawn Fanning along with volunteer Sean Parker first released the original Napster in June of 1999. Fanning wanted an easier method of finding music than by searching IRC or Lycos. John Fanning of Hull, Massachusetts, who is Shawn's uncle, ran all aspects of the company's operations for the first year from their office on Nantasket beach. The final agreement gave Shawn 30% control of the company, with the rest going to his uncle. It was the first of the massively popular peer-to-peer file sharing systems, although it was not fully peer-to-pe ...

See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - References in Anglo-American popular culture

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Origins

Napster's facilitation of illegal activity raised the ire of several major recording companies, who almost immediately — in December 1999 — filed a lawsuit against the popular service,[4] already called a "a huge grassroots effort" by MP3 Newswire.[5] The service would only get bigger as the trial, meant to shut down Napster, also gave it a great deal of publicity. Soon millions of users, many of t ...

See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - References in Anglo-American popular culture

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Shutdown

With all the accusations that Napster was destroying the record industry there were those who felt just the opposite, that file trading on Napster actually stimulated, rather than hurt, sales. Proof may have come in April 2000 when tracks from Radiohead's album Kid A found their way to Napster three months before the CD's release. Unlike Madonna, Radiohead had never hit the top 20 in the US. Furthermore, it was an experimental album that received little promotion and almost no radio airplay. As MP3 Newswire described,See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - References in Anglo-American popular culture

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Promotional power

In the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, a flashback depicts Shawn Fanning (playing himself) stealing the program from a computer expert played by Seth Green while the latter is napping, providing a humorous folk etymology for the name. The suffix "-ster" has become a popular component of the brand names of many Internet products, suggesting a peer-to-peer model, such as Grokster, Aimster (later Madster), and Blubster. This has also been extended to Friendster, a site which vaguely recalls Napster's community-building features.See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - References in Anglo-American popular culture

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - References in Anglo-American popular culture

After a $2.4 million offer by the Private Media Group, an "adult entertainment company",[9] Napster's brand and logos were acquired at bankruptcy auction by the company Roxio, Inc. which used them to rebrand the Pressplay music service as Napster 2.0. As of 2005, this new service has met with moderate success. Although the central servers used by Napster made it a convenient legal target, the record industry failed to capitalize on the power vacuum l ...

See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - References in Anglo-American popular culture

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Current status

Heavy metal band Metallica discovered that a demo of their song "I Disappear" had been circulating across the Napster network, even before it was released. This eventually led to the song being played on several radio stations across America. The band responded in 2000 by filing a lawsuit against the Napster service. The lawsuit was a failure, but 300,000 Napster users were banned from the service for sharing Metallica mp3s. Later that year, Madonna became irate when one of her singles leaked out on to the web and Napster prior to its commer ...

See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - References in Anglo-American popular culture

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Legal challenges

In the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, a flashback depicts Shawn Fanning (playing himself) stealing the program from a computer expert played by Seth Green while the latter is napping, providing a humorous folk etymology for the name. The suffix "-ster" has become a popular component of the brand names of many Internet products, suggesting a peer-to-peer model, such as Grokster, Aimster (later Madster), and Blubster. This has also been extended to Friendster, a site which vaguely recalls Napster's community-building features.See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - Cultural references

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Cultural references

Heavy metal band Metallica discovered that a demo of their song "I Disappear" had been circulating across the Napster network, even before it was released. This eventually led to the song being played on several radio stations across America. The band responded in 2000 by filing a lawsuit against the Napster service. The lawsuit was a failure, but 300,000 Napster users were banned from the service for sharing Metallica mp3s. Later that year, Madonna became irate when one of her singles leaked out on to the web and Napster prior to its commer ...

See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - Cultural references

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Legal challenges

Napster's facilitation of illegal activity raised the ire of several major recording companies, who almost immediately — in December 1999 — filed a lawsuit against the popular service,[4] already called a "a huge grassroots effort" by MP3 Newswire.[5] The service would only get bigger as the trial, meant to shut down Napster, also gave it a great deal of publicity. Soon millions of users, many of t ...

See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - Cultural references

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Shutdown

With all the accusations that Napster was destroying the record industry there were those who felt just the opposite, that file trading on Napster actually stimulated, rather than hurt, sales. Proof may have come in April 2000 when tracks from Radiohead's album Kid A found their way to Napster three months before the CD's release. Unlike Madonna, Radiohead had never hit the top 20 in the US. Furthermore, it was an experimental album that received little promotion and almost no radio airplay. As MP3 Newswire described,See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - Cultural references

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Promotional power

After a $2.4 million offer by the Private Media Group, an "adult entertainment company",[9] Napster's brand and logos were acquired at bankruptcy auction by the company Roxio, Inc. which used them to rebrand the Pressplay music service as Napster 2.0. As of 2005, this new service has met with moderate success. Although the central servers used by Napster made it a convenient legal target, the record industry failed to capitalize on the power vacuum l ...

See also:

Napster, Napster - Origins, Napster - Legal challenges, Napster - Shutdown, Napster - Promotional power, Napster - Current status, Napster - Cultural references

Read more here: » Napster: Encyclopedia II - Napster - Current status