Napster Case Study Essay examples

In early 1999, Shawn Fanning, a Northeastern University freshman, created Napster software. That summer he made it available for free through his Napster.com website. Napster is a peer-to-peer technology, which makes it possible for users to freely share their music files through the internet with other users all over the world. Specifically, this is how Napster works:

The music recording industry is in trouble. For several years now, sales of new and popular music have steadily declined and show no sign of changing. The record companies are quick to blame the growing popularity of the Internet; music is being traded in a digital form online, often anonymously, with the use of file-sharing programs such as Morpheus, KaZaA, and Imesh, to name a few. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) succeeded in disbanding the pioneer Internet file-sharing program, Napster, but is facing confrontation with similar programs that are escaping American copyright laws. While there is an obvious connection between declining popular music

Every adult, over the age of 18, has seen the changes the music industry has gone through since the introduction of the internet, digital downloading, and online streaming. We have heard that Tapes, CDs, MP3s, and the internet were going to destroy the industry. Have they destroyed it yet? According to Ian Morris, Author of the article, "Technology is Destroying the Music Industry, Which is Great for the Next Taylor Swift", music is changing but the only thing the internet is destroying are the record labels. Which he explains as a good thing for the industry. Morris talks about the roles the record label plays and why it 's on the way out. The biggest change in music since the internet was the development of Napster. 2014 marked fifteen years after the rise and fall of this online file sharing platform. The article "15 years After Napster: How the Music Service Changed the Industry", by Alex Suskind, talks about the failed program and why the biggest change in the music industry made record labels scared. So what does this all mean and why should people care? Well for starters when it comes to musicians and record labels, the company makes most of the money, as well as most of the decisions. Music was never meant to be something that was used for money. Music is made enjoyment and should be shared without extensive rules and regulations. Music existed before man and will exist after. It is not something that should be governed by big companies looking to make money. The

Though the projections for the fall quarter look promising the resurge us of books and CD’s is unlikely. Recent reports have sales of books falling as much as 34% over last year and the increase of eBooks over 300%. (Wolman, 2011) It also has CD sales being cut in half over the past decade. The rise of people buying digital music and streaming music is significant.

Another competing business or company, business B, will come along and provide a better way that will make consumers go to them instead of business A. Business A will have to come up with a better business strategy to out beat the competition and bring back the customers it lost and others and so on goes the cycle. This is what the CEO of Whole Foods means by the phrase “no business stays on top of its niche forever.” Another example will be Apple’s iPhones and keyboard phones. Apple used to be only a music, electronic company (iPod and iMac), and it sought out the phone business, which was dominated by Blackberry, LG, Samsung, etc. It was the first phone to not include a keyboard, everything was on a touch screen, and had internet access with music. It was thought to be a failure since it was very different but it proved to be the opposite. It became very popular with consumers and soon after many phone companies began to change their phones into touch screen phones. So far many companies have tried to be on top of Apple but have failed. Does this mean Apple is lucky and won’t go through what the CEO of Whom Food stated? I believe it will soon have a tough competitor in the near future (5 years from now) that will come along with interesting features that Apple’s iPhones don’t have. Meaning that some people will leave Apple’s iPhones and go with the next big thing whatever it

A&M Records vs Napster was one of the biggest copyright infringement cases that later defined the legality of file sharing. It was a class action lawsuit that include over fifteen major record labels including Universal Studios, Warner Bros, and Sony Entertainment. The official case though is called A&M Records vs Napster. A&M Records sued Napster claiming they were infringing on their plaintiff's intellectual property. Napster was a peer to peer file sharing service. It was mostly used to share mp3 music files in mass volumes. This was right at the start of mp3 players. Music was starting to become easily accessible through digital copies.

Since April 2003, iTunes Music Store has permitted the consumer to purchase music and digital books over the Internet with success. By 2005 their shares increase significantly as a result of their tremendous success. Their product became a platform for the digital music business to explode into the industry it is today. This also made digital music affordable to the consumer who may have gone to illegal downloads in the past which in turn ensured that the music industry was getting paid for their product as well. The $0.99 cents per song download provided $0.70 cents to be paid to the record companies and the remainder ($0.29 cents) was Apple profit. By August 2005, some of the larger record companies felt that their product was

In 1999, three young men who were passionate about computer programming created a website that would bring an entire industry to its knees. As the three boys, Shawn Fanning, John Fanning, and Sean Fanning, worked hard on their project, they could’ve never imagined that their invention, a peer to peer music file sharing service called, Napster, would effectively revolutionize the way an entire generation created, delivered, and received its entertainment. Since then, the internet, file sharing, and the music industry has changed drastically. Since Napster’s invention in 1999 we’ve had millions of different similar services come about such as iTunes, Rhapsody. Roxio, YouTube, Spotify and NoiseTrade. Napster’s creation and then subsequent demise in 2002, sparked a controversy that still exists today, the effects of music downloading on music industry revenue.

Napster changed the internet forever. “...Napster is considered the pioneer in the music industry…”(American Broadcast Company News). This shows how important Napster was to the music industry. They were the first company ever to be able to stream music through the internet. They were the birth of the online music business. “In the year 2000, a new company called Napster created something of a music fan's utopia—a world in which nearly every song ever

Music will never be obsolete, the medium may diminish but the music will remain. These pivotal issues are where we as individuals who become formally educated in the industry work to keep it afloat. These issues range from artists not receiving or earning very little royalty payments, artists and musicians having a harder time becoming mainstream due to the ease of access to technology, cancelled concerts because of low ticket sales, and rising ticket prices and inflation from resellers; The list is vast. The key to researching one of these fascinating topics is first identifying my goal for the research. In finding a topic that I believe progresses the industry I need to present a diligent case study that I nurtured. At first, I thought about building a new module to the form new standards for RIAA Certifications but then I realized that Adele has sold over 7 million copies of “25” and is currently number one on Billboard. This is the follow up album to “21” that never left the charts before her next album was released. I also recalled a night of watching a jaw-dropping episode of Scandal only to have Beyoncé unhinge what was left of my mandible when she released “Beyoncé” out the clear digital skies. It appealed to me because I can recall as a middle schooler anticipating first week sales of my favorite artists. I am not sure if that was normal 11 year old behavior but I will own it! We can agree that most of these artists possess a unique spark that allows them to prevail against the negative elements, so researching their creative footprint would not necessarily benefit upcoming artists as having a niche of their own is key. In my navigation through technology and my observations of the industry I have noticed a general upset when it comes to award shows as it pertains to nominees and

Starting in the year 1999, a company called Napster opened up a whole new world to the Internet where every song ever made was instantly available to you on your computer for free. It was created by an 18-year-old Northeastern University student named Shawn Fanning. Napster transformed personal computers into servers that shared mp3 files all across the Internet (Mayer, 2008). It became popular very quickly because exchanging mp3 files freely and having any music desired right at your fingertips had never been possible before. However, this program that provided the privilege of having free instant music to download did not last long, it was shut down after just two years by

Although the plight of the Music Industry and that of a Dynasty have similar characteristics, the Music Industry differs in its overall chemistry. For example, let 's begin with the 80 's - the 80 's offered a

The music industry has changed in very quickly in so many ways it almost seems impossible. Thomas Edison recorded the first voice in 1877 and now we listen to hundreds of different types of music on devices that hold more information than the computers that sent the first astronaut to the moon. People have been getting music in tons of ways for the past hundred plus years and when the internet came into the picture, the music industry sky rocketed. People could get their own music out and be heard just by clicking a few measly buttons and using the internet to stream millions of songs with high speed. But even though the internet has helped the music industry by making it easier to distribute, advertise, and produce music, it still has its disadvantages.

Napster, a free online file sharing network, allowed peers to share digital files directly with each other by way of connections through its software and system. The no cost peer-to-peer sharing gained popularity, particularly with trendy music. A&M Records took notice of the free digital music downloads and brought suit against Napster for direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringements (Washington University School of Law, 2013).

Digitalization, data compression, and the internet have affected the music industry significantly. These technologies have shifted the recording industries from hard-copy recordings to digital music distribution. This has made it easier for consumers to enter the music market through copying. Consumers have access to copying technology that allows them to obtain music without paying the record label. The situations clipped high in 1999 when Napster, a file-sharing service was launched. The service facilitated music file sharing on a wider scale. The consumers just download the music and transfer it to a digital music device. This has negatively affected the trade value of music sales, for instance in