Napster Essay Research Paper Napster

Napster Essay, Research Paper

Napster:

The affect on album sales

Napster is a computer program written in 1998, by Shawn Fanning, while he was a

student at Northeastern University. It allows us to download songs for free from other people that

have the program. There has been a lot of debate on whether Napster helps or harms album sales.

Several studies give us mixed signals on the impact of this music-sharing software.

Music Executives, and artists like Dr. Dre and Metallica, believe that Napster is hurting

the music industry. They are suing Napster for copyright infringement because they believe they

are losing millions of dollars, and therefore. Lawyers for the bands believe that “Whether online

or offline, it is illegal to copy and distribute someone else’s work in a way that deprives them of

income” (Vogelstein, par.8). They believe that anyone getting or distributing music over the

Internet is breaking the law.

Napster’s lawyers say that Napster isn’t buying and selling music illegally. They don’t

own or distribute the music itself. People are downloading music from other people and sharing

it with each other. Even though Napster only operates the servers that enable users to search for

music, the record labels still believe that they should be held liable. Music companies want the

courts to shut those servers down.

Several studies suggest that shutting down Napster will hurt album sales. Rolling

Stone magazine recently asked 5,000 readers whether they have bought fewer CD’s now that

music is available for free online, and only eight percent said yes. Most of the readers, fifty-four

percent, said their buying habits haven’t changed, and thirty-six percent said they are buying

more (Hansen, par.3). Another study by Greenfield Online and YouthStream Media Networks of

college students found that two-thirds of the people who admitted to downloading songs said

they did it to preview music before purchasing it. This study also finds that nearly eighty percent

of the people who use Napster said they still plan to buy CD’s.

One of those people is my friend Jimmy Leon. He likes to download a couple of songs

from an album before he goes out and buys it. He said, “I’d be more likely to download a song

and get an album if I liked it. If anything, Napster has made me want to buy more. It’s kind of like

listening to the radio.” He is saying that if he didn’t have the option to sample a song before he

buys the album, then he would buy less music.

Other people buy music even after they’ve downloaded it from Napster because they

prefer having a CD they can play in another part of the house, instead of listening on an MP3

player or computer. “Searching for and downloading music can be exhausting,” Jimmy said. “If

you want to get a whole album, it takes awhile. It’s more trouble than it’s worth.” The danger for

record companies is that there are a lot of people like Jimmy, and the battle to shut down Napster

could come at the expense of their best customers.

According to a new study from the Internet research firm, Jupiter Communications,

people who use Napster and other file-swapping networks to trade music, are more likely to

boost their music spending than those who don’t use such services. Jupiter said it surveyed more

than 2,200 online music fans about whether the money they spent on music purchases had

increased, decreased, or remained the same since they began visiting music destinations on the

Web. People between the ages of eighteen to twenty-four, who spend less than twenty dollars on

music within a three month period, indicated that they were likely to remain at a constant

purchasing level despite online music use. All other groups said they had increased spending as a

result of online music use. Jupiter analyst Aram Sinnreich said “Because Napster users are music

enthusiasts, it’s logical to believe that they are more likely to purchase now and increase their

music spending in the future.” Sinnreich said “the report is a further indication that the music

industry should embrace file sharing technology rather than pursue lawsuits aimed at shutting

down the companies behind it” (Hansen, par.5)

In his testimony, Hank Barry, Napster’s CEO, said “One study found that ninety five

percent of the files downloaded through Napster are eventually deleted.” That shows that fans are

using the service to sample music, not keep it. The establishment of Napster could explain why

music sales, in general, are up this year. According to Soundscan, there were 355 million albums

sold in the first six months of 2000, vs. 332 million in the same period last year. That’s an

increase of seven percent (Hansen, par.2). ‘N Sync, Britney Spears and Eminem all had explosive

first-week sales records. These studies suggest that Napster has a positive impact on album sales.

Napster can also help album sales through marketing. Recently, rap rockers Limp Bizkit,

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