Napster Debate

Upon occasion, an event or idea, once manifested becomes uncontrollable. One such event was the creation of Napster. Taking place in 1998 on the campus of North Eastern University, code creator Shawn Fanning teamed up with entrepreneur Sean Parker and together they changed how the world listens to music by launching Napster in 1999 (Haberman, 2014). Previously, when a consumer wanted a single song they would travel to their local record store and purchase a compact disk. By file-sharing on Napster, not only could they choose individual songs from albums, they received them for free. The music industry sales peaked at $14.6 billion the same year Napster was launched (Berr, 2016). This was possible due to the music industry being unified under the trade organization, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the organization having complete control of music distribution. With the creation of Napster, the power of distribution began to shift away from the music industry to the consumer and the music industry began to take notice (Haberman, 2014).

In the end, even though the RIAA was successful in shutting down Napster; “Pandora’s box” had been opened. Consumers were no longer satisfied in purchasing CD’s to obtain one song they desired and with Napster’s blueprint they no longer had to. Several companies would follow Napster’s lead and as before, the music industry would attempt to stop them. The music industry was fighting a losing battle when another entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, offered a mutually beneficial solution (Haberman, 2014). Apple iTunes allowed a new platform for the music industry where their product could be sold. With Apple and the music industry working together, the consumer could receive the product as it desired and the music industry was able to profit by selling copyright