I was an awkward, shy, bookish kid with no time for anyone or anything except my books – Babysitter’s Club and Francesca Lia Block all day long – and my music collection. Napster was revolutionary for a young kid with no money to spend on the copious amount of music they were inhaling every waking moment of the day. The ability to download every single song and/or album you wanted for ‘free’ instead of waiting breathlessly by the radio to press ‘record’ when your song came on or spending your whole week’s allowance on a single album was mind-boggling. Aside from believing that the Feds were going to come knocking down your door for the crime of downloading music without paying for it, the peer-to-peer file sharing networks were a game-changer for the music industry.
This technology enabled one to (illegally) download as much music as one wanted even though it often took a few hours or days. One may even get a wee virus out of it, but that was okay as long as you had the new Radiohead album at your fingertips in mp3 format. Before the start of Napster, Limewire and other peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, you would have had to dish out at least 10 to 20 pounds for a full album or wait by the radio to record the latest hits on tape often with a loquacious DJ ruining the beginning and end of the song.
There was a bit of an overlap with a couple of the contributors of this blog choosing the iPod and mp3 player. Instead of burning your newly acquired music to a disc to play on your walkman, – and having to listen to the skips that more than likely appeared after heavy rotation – you now had the ability to carry around your music on a tiny gadget that could hold multiple songs and albums. The name of the artist, the album, and song were also prominently displayed so there was no guessing what the actual name of your new favourite song was – you had it right there on the screen!Looking at the choices within our group, I believe that the question of technological obsolescence is not a question of if something will become obsolete but when it will become obsolete and what will be its successor.
After a brief search it seems as though Napster has been bought by Rhapsody- a digital music platform that is headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices dotted throughout the world. I do not have a subscription to the Napster services offered, but I do have a Spotify premium account. Napster has changed from a peer-to-peer file sharing platform to a digital music streaming provider, but it is far from the most popular! If you asked anyone who used to use Napster to download music if it was still around they would most likely answer in the negative as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube Music, etc. have taken over as the lead streaming music providers.
The only thing I would preserve is the “free” part, but even that has its downsides. While streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and others have been an amazing contribution to society, they often have a rocky relationship with the artists themselves by not providing reasonable compensation for the streams. This is, of course, a long-documented battle between record labels, artists, and now streaming services that has yet to be untangled. A copy of the software is available on Archive.org in the software library.
Resources
‘Home’. [n.d.]. Napster.Com <https://us.napster.com/> [accessed 23 October 2020]
‘Napster : Http://Www.Napster.Com : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive’. [n.d.]. Archive.Org <https://archive.org/details/tucows_357993_Napster> [accessed 23 October 2020]
Super User. [n.d.]. ‘Home – Digital Preservation Handbook’, Dpconline.Org <https://www.dpconline.org/handbook> [accessed 24 October 2020]
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