The Great Napster Essay, Research Paper

THE GREAT NAPSTER

Napster is innovative file-sharing software that lets an online

community of music lovers trade MP3 files free of charge. You search for a song by name, and a list of people who have it pops up and you can choose whomever you want to get it from, and in addition, you can see and download any other songs that they may have in their files. We feel like it is a good thing because it does have some positive aspects: it’s good for finding older music that isn’t in production anymore, you can sample songs from groups

before you buy their music, it gives less popular musicians a chance to have their music heard, and it provides a forum for people with similar music interests to come together.

Napster might be able to offer you a chance at finding older music that just isn’t in production anymore. For example, you can’t find your favorite music from the 70s or 80s in music stores today unless it was a big hit back then. Our resources are very limited as to how we can come across these songs. Music stores today tend to have only a limited stock of what they perceive to be popular. You might be looking for theme songs for old movies or TV shows that are hard to find, and chances are you will be able to find them on Napster. One user says, “The first weekend that I tried Napster I found twelve songs that I’d been hunting for over fifteen years to find! These are songs I’ve been going in to record stores over the years and asking for”- (Eclectic)

Using Napster, it’s great how you can sample songs from groups before you buy their music. Sometimes we hear of groups, whether it’s by commercial or promotion of an upcoming concert, and we’re not really sure of who they are. What if we mistake one artist for another?, It’s not too much fun wasting money on the wrong group. Music is almost always non-refundable, because they assume that if you’re returning it, you have already taped it. With Napster, we can listen to a song and sample it so to speak. We may hear a song and like it but not know who sings it. Napster is a tool that we can use to find out who the artist is and so we can go purchase the music from the store. A recent study of more than 2,200 online music fans by Jupiter Communications suggests that users of Napster and other music-sharing programs are 45 percent more likely to increase their music purchasing than fans who aren’t trading digital bootlegs online.

Napster also gives less popular musicians a chance to have their music heard. Lots of underground musicians who don’t have the money for advertisement and promotions put their own music on Napster so they can gain some fame and recognition. This free advertising gets them known, at which point they can get on their feet and start to make money by selling albums and holding concerts. “Artists just want to be heard. If they can make a living out of it, that’s simply a bonus”. Pete Townshend, The Who

Napster also provides a forum for people with similar music interests to come together. There are plenty of chat rooms available titled by genre. For example, you can go into an 80s room, and it shows you how many people are in the room, how many songs they have available to you, and their connection speed. You can click on someone and share every file they have and weed through it later, or if you’re looking for something more specific, you can make requests, and the buddies in the room speak out. This is a great way to meet fellow fans. You make lots of friends very easily because you know that they are there for the same purpose as you. “Bravo to Napster for allowing more social distribution of nostalgic songs!”- WarpKat,MIS/IS/IT,

Consulting/Systems Integrator

Napster was a great idea, with all of the great aspects of finding old music, sampling before buying, giving underground musicians a chance, and meeting new people. Someone should’ve come out with it sooner.

Bibliography

Sources:

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2373030.html

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/napster000728.html

http://www.fairtunes.com/index.jsp

http://artist.napster.com

http://newsletter.napster.com