Back in 1969 Don McLean wrote these immortal words:
“Now for ten years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone,
But that’s not how it used to be.
When the jester sang for the king and queen,
In a coat he borrowed from james dean
And a voice that came from you and me”
While people have spent 40 years analyzing those words, they can also be used to reflect upon the last ten years – ten years where Napster has been part of the musical landscape. In June 1999 Shawn Fanning wrote a computer program that turned the music industry on its head and created changes to the music industry that are still being felt today – a decade later.
Napster truly represented the “voice that came from you and me” as Napster was based on letting friends swap “a voice.” Napster allowed connected users to share the MP3 contents of their hard drives, using peer-to-peer technology to move the files from one machine to another. This simple process threatened and changed the music industry – “the king and queen” – with changes that are still being felt today.
From college servers, to a service 85 million users around the world and a billion searches for music every day, to bankruptcy, through corporate owners to Best Buy.
As a company, Napster had risen, fallen, tried to rise, fallen, stayed down, tried to rise – it’s hard to follow the entire history. It’s been like a professional wrestling match – except in the end Shawn “Hulk” Fanning dressed in his Napster adorned wrestling outfit is overwhelmingly defeated by the villain – the RIAA.
But just as in professional wrestling, just because you are defeated – it’s doesn’t really mean you are defeated. Best Buy is now doing its best to restore the Napster brand as the ” ultimate digital music package, offering unlimited on-demand music streaming as well as downloadable MP3s for one’s permanent collection playable on any MP3 compatible device,
Best Buy, in the guise of Napster, is offering streaming service from their 7-million-track library for a flat monthly fee of $5 per month. You also get to choose from over 60 commercial-free radio stations and more than 1,400 expertly programmed playlists. And each month you get to download keep 5 MP3s. Best Buy is hoping that by offering Napster cards at the cash register they can cash in on some of that money that is currently going to iTunes.
Napster is going up against a variety of services, most directly Microsoft Zune and their $15 per month fee which lets you keep 10 MP3s each month. But as noted above, the bigger competitor is iTunes which does not offer monthly subscriptions like Zune and Napster – but that’s because they don’t have too – they have all the customers they need. However, there is a job posting from Napster, asking for a software engineer with experience in “Mac/iPhone OS X Development. Five bucks a month for instant access to seven million songs (plus your five DRM-free downloads) is a decent deal but if they throw in an iPhone client Napster might come close to being a great deal again.
It should be noted that today all Napster downloads, 5 free a month and ones you buy, are all DRM-free. However, highlighting the irony of where Napster is today, Amazon and iTunes both released their catalogs in DRM-free mode before Napster. From wild and days crazy to the last major bastion of DRM music.
Napster’s offering is a good offer – but it leaves an unusual taste in your mouth. It’s kind of like finding out that the descendants of Bonnie and Clyde are bank security guards and they foiled a robbery at your bank – saving your money. While you are, of course, are happy – there is that little voice in the back of your head that kind of misses the wild antics of Bonnie and Clyde. You know the voice is wrong – Bonnie and Clyde were criminals as was Shawn Fanning – but still you miss those wild times.
There still is a “bit of the Napster” out there with free.napster.com but is is pretty limited these days. Just check out the restrictions:
Only US residents can play full length songs. You may play any particular song up to three (3) times, after which you will need to subscribe to Napster or purchase the song to play it in full again. In addition, you may only play an aggregate of twenty-five Streams in any given month. To buy a song or subscribe, you need to download our player software.
So you can still visit Napster for some free MP3s – but just a couple. Watch out for those rules.
Right or wrong, making money or going bankrupt, legal or illegal – it has never really mattered. The name name Napster will forever bring memories to a generation who briefly enjoyed free MP3s. It will forever be known for starting a battle over copyright laws – a battle that is still being waged a decade later and one that will doubtless rage on for years to come.
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