Episode 148 - Metallica vs. Napster

In June of 1999, two college programmers launched a program that would go on to change the face of the entire music industry. Napster was the first mainstream program that allowed users to share and download mp3's on a centralized, user-friendly peer to peer network. Within months of launching, Napster had millions of users sharing and downloading tens of millions of songs all over the world.

In March of 2000, Metallica learned that an unreleased and unmixed version of their forthcoming single, "I Disappear" had been leaked to radio stations all over America. The leak was traced to Napster where Metallica also learned their entire catalogue was available for free. This prompted an April lawsuit and a year of bad press for Metallica as they sought not only to shut Napster down, but also to start a public dialogue about the relationship between commerce, art, intellectual property and the delicate future of artistic control in a digital age.

In 2002 Napster filed for bankruptcy and liquidated it's assets. But in it's wake, countless other file sharing programs surfaced. Torrenting sites soon became ubiquitous. It seems that everything Metallica fought to protect was taken from them regardless of how the Napster controversy ended. What was left besides a tarnished reputation for Metallica?

In this episode Clint, Ethan and their long time friend, Grammy nominated producer Paul Moak, break down the entire Napster saga in detail. They talk through the origin of Napster, the relevant details of the lawsuit, the demise and unlikely future of Napster and discuss the reaching implications into modern day streaming from the point of view of seasoned music industry professionals.

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