napster + seven years after = ?

Response to Grade 10 Journal Entry Question: How Napster Changed the WORLD?

Napster was infamous at the beginning of the new millenium because it offered an easy way to get music. It was this very application that opened up the world to illegal downloading that still continues on up until now. Napster was a prime example and one of the pioneers of a more general public-initiated P2P (peer-to-peer) online music downloading.

Of course, Napster didn't begin illegal downloading. In fact, it had existed for many years through sources such as IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels. Napster brought a simple user interface to the art (if you can call illegal downloading an art, anyways) that didn't involve complex commands to get music. But of course, from Napster spawned more P2P applications, as well as the awareness of general Internet users and record labels of the situation.

Napster was originally created to help distribute music digitally, and record labels paid no attention to the matter until it began to affect their revenue. In fact, I think it triggered the whole market for pirated music in a reverse effect. Record companies can't stop music pirating 100% because of applications such as Napster - take a look at programs such as KaZaA and Gnutella that also aided in the deterioration of legal music distribution. There really hasn't been a victory in online downloading, although people have the option of paying for their music to support the artists. Some artists find online music distribution as a great way to market themselves; others find it as a vehicle to take away their income if their CD's get bootlegged.

And it's not just affecting record companies - look at all the music stores that are suffering. It's rare to find record stores without DVD's or games to help their income these days. Online music distribution doesn't only have an effect on record label executives or music artists, but also normal people that run stores filled with CD's. I recall walking down the Danforth and seeing an old specialty record store that was selling off all their CD's, in hopes of converting to a vinyl-only shop. I saw a frown appear on the owner's face as a customer said, "It's cool, I already downloaded like, half the album." People have to accomodate digital downloading now, and it's definitely taking a toll on buyers and sellers alike.

Don Dodge's article had given me the message that we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves when dealing with technology. Napster had grown so quickly that it has taken a huge bite out of the music record industry, and has affected our methods of getting music drastically. We don't need to go out to buy a CD to get the album you're really anticipating - just point and click and you've got all the tracks on your computer. Instead, we should anticipate what needs to be done, the effects that our solution may have, and to conduct many trials before releasing a final product. Trial-and-error production methods are much better than trial-and-error in the real world, in my opinion.

The bottom line? Napster, thanks for revolutionizing music distribution as we know it.