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Music's new killer app: Napster
Up until now, we've seen only one true "killer" app on the Web, and that's the browser. It killed client/server computing. Since then, everybody has been betting the ranch on the next Internet assassin. Never have so many apps failed to kill so few real computing functions. The reason they failed to duplicate the success of the browser is that they couldn't duplicate its creation. Whereas most Web technologies today are conceived by marketing gurus, the browser was born out of a group of students who got together to try to create a utility that merely made their lives easier. The rest is history. Today, history is repeating itself. If you haven't heard of Napster, then you probably haven't been spending much time online, reading major news media or living on a college campus. If you have, then you know that the search engine software that enables users to share MP3 files, or digitally recorded music, is spreading like wildfire. If you are the Recording Industry Association of America, then Napster is a true killer app—because it's killing your industry.
Napster was developed by Northeastern University student Shawn Fanning. Fanning is the next Marc Andreessen; he has since quit school to work on his project. No doubt Napster will be snatched by a large predator—already, America Online subsidiary Nullsoft is developing a potential competitor, the open-source project known has Gnu tella—although I hope competitive pressures don't turn Napster into behemoth bloatware like today's browser or the CPU-choking Real Jukebox.
Fanning wanted to create a true community out of frustration with other so-called communities like MP3.com. Those sites also share music files, but no one ever heard of the artists. In truth, they are only for unsigned or unknown acts trying to circumvent the impenetrable bastion of the recording industry.
And there's the rub: If you don't already know, the RIAA is suing Napster, MP3.com and everybody else involved in this nasty business of trading music files. The RIAA doesn't like it when its rec ord companies are cheated out of their profits, although in a letter posted on MP3.com's site, the RIAA claims it's merely interested in protecting the "creative talent" of the artists.
Hogwash. Software like Napster and sites that enable MP3 sharing are only facilitating a process that is driven by consumer demand. The real copyright violations, if they indeed exist, lie with those users ripping, or extracting, music files from their CDs and distributing them for profit. The rest of us using Napster are guilty of nothing that hasn't been done for years by owners of tape decks and VCRs.
The music industry is rightly scared, but only because it's the last remaining business that hasn't woken up to the Web. In fact, it can help make MP3 work for rather than against it. First, it should cut the price of CDs, lowering the incentive for users to seek music online. CDs are vastly overpriced anyway, costing pennies to reproduce and usually leaving only a few more pennies to the artists.
Second, start distributing music over the Web, charging a low price for the service. That still would keep RIAA members' profits up, since all traditional distribution costs would be eliminated.
The RIAA needs to get with the program. And all you music lovers should get the program, at www.napster.com.
Will the music industry ever change? Let me know in the talkback below.
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