Fifteen years ago, Napster – the first of many services to allow digital-music downloads – reached an agreement with BMG. This meant that, for the first time, it would be possible for people to legally download music from the service. Of course, the entire concept of digital downloading as a whole was just beginning; in the time since this agreement was reached, digital downloading has evolved considerably. The template set by Napster has been raised time and time again, as downloading and streaming music over the internet has gotten far more convenient since 2000. As the technology advanced, the music industry has had no choice but to adapt.
Despite the BMG agreement, Napster was still being sued by several other music labels, and they initially ceased operations in September 2002, but that didn’t stop many other similar programs from emerging in its wake. There were Kazaa, Limewire, and several others, all full of free music files put forth by their users, with increasingly convenient interfaces. As this phenomenon carried on, every once in a while you would hear about someone being fined an exorbitant amount of money, or even facing serious jail time for downloading music illegally (which South Park memorably mocked in the “Christian Rock Hard” episode), but all of those people felt like rather unfortunate exceptions to the rule. Unless you were extremely unlucky enough to get caught, you could get away with downloading as much music as you wanted without paying a cent.
Of course, that wasn’t for everyone. Plenty of people were understandably averse to the risk of serving hard time for downloading a few Metallica songs, and several others felt genuinely guilty about essentially stealing an artist’s work, even if the artist in question was most assuredly rich enough to afford it. Many of these people, however, were nonetheless appreciative of the idea of having all their music was right on their computer instead of in endless stacks of compact discs. That’s why as the illegal downloading business was booming, there was also plenty of cash to be made from people who were willing to pay to download music legally. iTunes was the most clear example of this. It had an easy to navigate, streamlined format, and any song you downloaded could be transported to your iPod, allowing for maximum convenience. Maybe the Limewire crowd thought you were a sucker for being willing to pay for music, but iTunes users got a lot out of the experience, and it appeared as though the music industry would be able to easily adjust to the era of digital downloading.
In time, though, that thought became less certain. If Limewire, Kazaa and the like could give you songs or albums one at a time that you’d have to wait a decent amount of time for, places like The Pirate Bay and BitTorrent upped the game considerably. Now, you could download any album the moment it came out, and get an artist’s discography immediately. Once again, it was getting harder for the industry to play catch-up. Of course, every founder of The Pirate Bay was eventually arrested, but still, a new precedent had been set. Music listeners were now accustomed to being able to get pretty much whatever they wanted for free. There was no choice but to act accordingly.
This is likely a big part of why Spotify exists now. Moreso than any site we’ve seen, Spotify grants a stunning amount of access to the listener. Type an artist’s name, and their entire work magically appears, in (reverse) chronological order. When Spotify premiered in 2011, you had a choice; get everything for free in exchange for listening to a few ads (an obligation you could circumvent if you simply paused each song just as it was ending), or pay $5 for Spotify Premium, and do away with all the ads. That’s how it’s been for awhile, but it was recently announced that the days of free Spotify are on their way out, or at least being severely limited. Still, it’s a small amount of money for a giant catalog of music, and it’s unlike anything we could have conceived 20 years ago.
Compared to what we have with Spotify now, Napster and the many services that would follow in its wake were rather difficult to navigate. You’d type an artist name or a song name into the search engine and hope for the best. Since everything was being put forth by users — some of whom might not be all that knowledgeable about music — you’d get mistakes. Blink 182 songs would be labelled as Good Charlotte songs, and vice versa. Smashing Pumpkins classics like “Cherub Rock” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” would appear as “Let Me Out” and “Rat In A Cage.” Of course, it didn’t really matter; you were getting music without having to spend any money.
Still, it’s stunning to think how much easier it is now; on Spotify, every album is just right in front of you, with cover art included. And you don’t have to spend 40 minutes waiting for a particularly lengthy download to finish. You get all you could ask for without having to put forth a great deal of effort. Even compared to the bigger sites like Bit Torrent and Pirate Bay — which could give you the entire epic discography of, say, Neil Young, at the click of a button — this feels easier. There’s no work that has to be put in. When considering how much music is immediately at our fingertips, one might conclude that the music industry’s most successful way of stopping us from downloading music illegally was to just give it to us for free — or at least practically free — anyway.
Fifteen years later, the effects — as well as the evolution — of digital downloading have been remarkable. It has essentially replaced physical music as the primary way to listen to music. Sure, people still buy CDs (no, really), and the vinyl revival continues to grow, but the easiest and most common way to listen to a new album is to stream it. Then, if you like it, perhaps you would consider spending your hard-earned cash for a physical copy. Digital music is far easier to access than it was at the turn of the 21st century, and while some of that is the result of natural technological evolution, a lot is likely because all of us — from label heads to artists to listeners — understand that this is just the way it is now. Whether this is a good thing is a difficult subject that could be debated for days. One thing’s for sure, though: It’s never been an easier time to be a music listener.
