How Napster Altered The Music Business
No matter the form, music continues to be a huge source of entertainment and no period revolutionized the music industry as the digital age of the late 90s and early 2000s did.
One of the benefits of the digital age was the elimination of listeners' dependence physical CDs and records to hear music; individuals could download music free with P2P programs and store their music on their personal computers.
In The Beginning There Was Only Napster Napster was the initial peer-to-peer sharing program that allowed individuals to share music without having to pay for the album or song; Napster bypassed paying music businesses for the digital copies.
This new tactic of downloading music outraged musicians and record companies because of the pirating that started because of it.
Record companies lost millions of dollars as a result of P2P programs, and would eventually sue Napster and have it temporarily banned from the Internet.
The Napster Effect Napster managed to influence other businesses to create music sharing programs, attracting unwanted attention from record companies.
P2P produced huge loss of revenue for the music industry, and even for the musicians who produced music for their fans.
Despite the legal claims music companies made on the pirating business, people continued to copy millions of songs free of charge.
Regardless of the government's prosecution of criminals, it was difficult to prosecute individuals, especially when millions of people were downloading music illegally.
As one P2P company was closed down, others replaced it, making a vicious cycle of pirating companies and illegal downloads.
Digital Music The music industry managed to shut down various major P2P programs; however, other legal programs would be caused by alternatives to complimentary music downloads, such as iTunes and Rhapsody.
An alternative to P2P downloads soon popped up, allowing individuals to pay a fee with a music service, such as Rhapsody, or pay per song or per album, as with iTunes, unlike Rolling Stones vinyl records.
After obtaining a digital version of a song, individuals would often make a CD from the songs or place the songs onto an MP3 player.
Digital songs would drive down the costs of record albums and produce a better value for users looking to get songs or digital albums from digital storefronts.
The new era of technology would force record businesses to shift mediums; while the industry fought off P2P programs, the effect of these programs still lingers and still results in the loss of millions of dollars from the music businesses.