The recording industry, Metallica, and ultimately federal court put the brakes on Napster’s music file sharing. But before exiting the stage, Napster changed the way we listen to music— and how much we’re willing to pay for it.

Read the transcript here.

[Editor’s note - Sept. 1, 2020: This episode has been updated to reflect that “CyberTalk” was a group effort overseen by Jeff Gold. An earlier version characterized it as his solo effort.]

Miss the 90's? And the early 2000's? Travel back in time with us, to the golden age of MTV, with this Napster-era playlist we made on Spotify! Guess we should thank Napster for Spotify too, huh?

GUESTS

Bernhard Grill — Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits

Alex Lewis — Napster early adopter, radio producer and musician

Steve Knopper — music journalist, Billboard editor at large

Ali Aydar — former Napster engineer, CEO at Sporcle

Eileen Richardson — former Napster CEO, CEO at Downtown Streets Team

Portia Sabin — ex-drummer of The Hissyfits, President of the Music Business Association

Jeff Gold — former Vice President at Warner Brothers Records, record dealer at Recordmecca

Jennifer Jenkins — Clinical Professor of Law at Duke Law, Director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain

SELECTED SOURCES

Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Business in the Digital Age — by Steve Knopper

Theft: A History of Music — by Jennifer Jenkins

The Future of What Podcast — host Portia Sabin

Sonic Boom: Napster, MP3, and the New Pioneers of Music — by John Alderman

Metallica v. Napster Inc.  (court documents)

Napster Was Gambling All the Way — Joseph Menn, Los Angeles Times

JUST FOR FUN

Lars Was Right — 60 Minutes

Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Online Entertainment and Copyright Law — C-Span

Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl on Napster and music downloading — The Dennis Miller Show

MC Hammer on Napster — The Wall Street Journal

OUR SPONSORS THIS WEEK
Bombas: bombas.com/spectacular
Policy Genius: policygenius.com
NetSuite: netsuite.com/spectacular


GET MORE FROM THE SPEC FAILS TEAM
Sign up to receive our brand new newsletter: spectacularfailures.org/newsletter.

You can follow Spectacular Failures on Twitter and Facebook using @failureshow. We're @failure_show on Instagram. Follow Lauren Ober on Twitter and Instagram at @oberandout.

HELP SUPPORT THE SHOW

Spectacular Failures is powered by you. Support the show with a donation at spectacularfailures.org/donate.