Napster’s Next Act
Is the new face of livestreaming a way forward for live music?
Twenty years ago, Metallica famously filed suit against Napster after it leaked Metallica’s hush-hush track, “I Disappear,” which was slated to appear on the Mission Impossible:2 soundtrack. In advocating Metallica’s position, drummer Lars Ulrich testified to Congress that: “Napster hijacked our music without asking. They never sought our permission.” Metallica won. Few were surprised by the win in what seemed like a clear-cut (if unprecedented) case of copyright infringement, but its divisive aftershocks rattled the music industry. Metallica, a heavy metal band, somehow found its motives conflated with those of corporate suits. Many artists took the sides of indignant fans, even though these fans had presumably stolen the band’s music. In short order, Napster’s technology outpaced our visceral sense of what it means to own music.
Before Napster, theft required a sweaty-palmed lift from a music store. Purchasing bootlegged wares from the back of a trunk. Sneaking a tape recorder into a show. The act of stealing required not only planning, but time. In sharp contrast, Napster’s accessible peer-to-peer (P2P) filing sharing was instantaneous; its speed served as a buffer, removing us from the cold reality that people had ceased to be paid for their work. Because music is inherently intangible, its vulnerable. Hear someone…
