AllanM88

It’s hard to believe Christmas has come and gone and New Year’s Eve is now upon us. Where does the time go?

When I read this morning that Naptser was officially being shut down (with it’s users being absorbed into the Rhapsody service), my immediate reaction was, “great…good riddance!”.  I guess it’s a knee-jerk reaction I’ve been programmed to believe over the years given that I work in and around the music industry.

But as the day has progressed, I started thinking less as a ‘music person’ and more as a ‘music fan’…and then I really started to ‘miss’ Napster.  Now, ‘miss’ is probably too strong of a word as I haven’t really used Napster since it got shut down by the RIAA and became a subscription service, but I started to remember how great it was in 1999.  Oh sure, I knew it was bad for the industry that I worked in, but suddenly, as a fan, I had access to pretty much any song I could think of. 

From a user standpoint, it was fluid, easy-to-use and concise.  I started listening to music that I hadn’t heard in ages…and that progressed to me starting to listen to music that I hadn’t heard - music that wasn’t being played on the radio, or music from bands I had read about, but didn’t have $20 to go buy the CD in order to find out if I really liked them or not. 

At this point in my career, I had worked for various retailers and a couple of labels, so I had access to free music…but it wasn’t FREE that I was interested in, it was TOTAL ACCESS.  And that’s what I think the RIAA and the music industry on the whole got wrong.  I began to think, what we’re missing here is that there were over a million users at any given time listening to music.  That’s an impressive audience all in one spot, we should capitalize on this opportunity.  Instead, the RIAA shut it down and the whole concept of file sharing went to other sites (AudioGalaxy) and underground via Torrents (which still exist to this day). 

There’s no question my life and career would have been different if it wasn’t for Napster.  The music industry had a firm hold on physical distribution and I had figured out that racket by the time I was 15 years old.  I knew I had to be a part of it, and I knew how to be a part of it, but Napster changed everything.  Sales of physical products declined, digital music was starting to become popular (thanks to iTunes and the iPod) and for awhile, it was the wild wild west out there.  I wasn’t going to be this rich, music industry exec flying around in private jets to see bands play (yes, that’s what I envisioned for myself when I was 16), instead, I was to become victim (and benefactor) of layoffs, mergers, acquistions, firings, etc.

That said, I’m glad that Napster came in and blew the lid off of things.  Oh sure, things would’ve been a lot easier and more lucrative for me as I grew up in the music business, but without it, I may not have learned about digital music and digital distribution.  I might not have learned about user interfaces, music streaming, pin based promotions, music platforms digital music services, etc..  And now, all these things are my world, my life…and ironically, the very thing that continues to allow me to work in the business I love, while other colleagues and peers who were much smarter than me, were forced to move on to other industries outside of music.

So while Napster might have taken away the life I thought I was going to have, it also opened up the life I am living now.  And I like the life I am living now.

So I shed a tear for the old Napster, but I look forward to being in the position to get it right this time, embrace technology and work towards estabilshing and supporting streaming services - services based on a concept that Napster introduced me to back in 1999….TOTAL ACCESS to all music for everyone!