FTA: Until the last MP3 copies of Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water are deleted, Napster will continue to live on we will never truly be free.

Amazingly, nothing ever really replaced Napster for what you could do with it. Sure, I can pretty much get any MP3 I want easy enough. But still, there was nothing quite like having them at your fingertips all in one place. I loved finding someone on Napster with a few songs I liked, then I'd download their entire directory over night. It was a fun way to explore new music.

I still miss it and Kazaa...and the fun thing with Kazaa was, there were a shiat-ton of people who shared their entire harddrives. I spent countless hours looking at private pictures, documents, and other shiat.

Will just leave this here ....

Napster Bad

NSFW - Language

Grand_Moff_Joseph: You'd think Lars would have popped the bubbly well before now. I mean, his career as a relevant musical talent has been over for years.

THIS

/plus the fact that Best Buy Rhapsody runs it now...

When I started college at U of Illinois in 2001, we were amazed by how awesome the internet in the dorms was. Like, 12 second song downloads. It blew our minds. We downloaded the shiat outta Napster, as well as playing great LAN Halo and TF games.

Ah, good times.

You know, now that I think about it, maybe it was Kazaa. Hmm...

when napster came out, I used it to get mp3s of all my records. I'm pretty sure there's files floating around that I ripped the only copy of. If you hear anything with vinyl pops and crackles, made by an emo band, only appearing on 7", there's a 1% chance you're listening to something I ripped from wax.

/this is what my life will amount to

RIP OiNK

Lars who?

/I thought he was a lawyer.

I was (and still am) a metal guy. When Metallica first came out with the "No Life Til Leather" demo, he was getting all these interviews in metal fanzines saying: "Yeah! Tape trading!! Get the word out there!" He had no problem with the practice we all were doing at the time: Making mix tapes of new and obscure metal and trading them with friends. I realize that it had reached many more people with Napster than tape trading ever did, but it still was a bit hypocritical.

My fondest memory of Napster was searching Butthole Surfers songs and coming upon one labeled Underdog Title Song. I figured it was incorrectly labeled as was a lot of songs I had downloaded already but I liked the Underdog song from the cartoon and figured it would be fun to have. It was indeed labeled correctly and it was beyond awesome, word for word only in Butthole Surfer fashion.

Fun thing is there are still MP3s floating around out there from the early Napster days. I remember putting together the Metallica Album and somehow it wasn't on the computer I was on so I just grabbed it from gnutella or something years later.

The MD5s of the files were identical.

Torrents were fun. But now that I have a real job. Paying for usenet is so much better.
/csb

Metallicock inconsolable.

Fark you Lars Ulrich. You never really had any talent anyways, and even though I had completely given up on you & Metallica by the time you decided to have a hissy fit over this, this made me want to punch you in the cawke.

/Metallica got to be who they were by tape trading fans; Napster was just the new way of doing it

Bruxellensis: [www.p2p-weblog.com image 450x353]

RIP OiNK

It lives on through Waffles and What.cd.

stovepipe: [3.bp.blogspot.com image 273x400]

Never seen that caption before. I would point out that Hetfield is on the left wearing shorts and holding the Armani bag. I don't know who is wearing the jeans.

strangeguitar: I was (and still am) a metal guy. When Metallica first came out with the "No Life Til Leather" demo, he was getting all these interviews in metal fanzines saying: "Yeah! Tape trading!! Get the word out there!" He had no problem with the practice we all were doing at the time: Making mix tapes of new and obscure metal and trading them with friends. I realize that it had reached many more people with Napster than tape trading ever did, but it still was a bit hypocritical.

It wasn't a bit hypocritical, it was INSANELY hypocritical. They were MADE by the underground scene which relied heavily on the type of word of mouth/bootleg promotion you are referring to. There were tons of other bands and artists fighting Napster but they weren't as much a part of the underground as Metallica was and didn't owe as much to bootleggers. They happily jumped the shark as soon as Cliff Burton died. The sickest part of it all is there is an interview where they are essentially saying he didn't have that much influence or pull in the band as everyone claimed. Bullsh*t! They even relocated to be close to the guy.

F*cking douchnozzles. I'd like to get all the old albums back into my collection but I will do it in such a way that they get as little money as possible with my purchases, ie: buy them all used.

Napster?



"Man, that's like NAP TIME!"

/obscure enough for most
//but not for Fark

strangeguitar: I was (and still am) a metal guy. When Metallica first came out with the "No Life Til Leather" demo, he was getting all these interviews in metal fanzines saying: "Yeah! Tape trading!! Get the word out there!" He had no problem with the practice we all were doing at the time: Making mix tapes of new and obscure metal and trading them with friends. I realize that it had reached many more people with Napster than tape trading ever did, but it still was a bit hypocritical.

In 1983, Lars felt that it should be the artists' choice how their music is distributed.
In 2003, Lars felt that it should be the artists' choice how their music is distributed.

Metallica's anti-P2P campaigning was aloof and shortsighted, yes, but I don't see it as hypocritical.

thismomentinblackhistory: I never bought as many CDs as I did when Napster was around.

If the record industry weren't a bunch of pompous, self absorbed, greedy blowhards they'd realize that by allowing people to sample the tracks they would INCREASE their sales. I mean what kind of idiot drops twenty bucks on an album they've never even heard? Sure if you are rabid fan of some band who put out a new release (I still wouldn't personally) but what about new acts?

Bootlegs. Killing what deserves to die.

darkscout: Fun thing is there are still MP3s floating around out there from the early Napster days.

Not to mention how a few mislabellings ended up so widespread the confusion remains to this day. One good example is now many people think Sister Hazel's All For You is by Blues Traveler (or even Hootie & the Blowfish) due to a mislabelled file on early Napster.

/hot like a gold brick

MadMonk: My fondest memory of Napster was searching Butthole Surfers songs and coming upon one labeled Underdog Title Song. I figured it was incorrectly labeled as was a lot of songs I had downloaded already but I liked the Underdog song from the cartoon and figured it would be fun to have. It was indeed labeled correctly and it was beyond awesome, word for word only in Butthole Surfer fashion.

The CD that's off of is Saturday Morning Cartoon's Greatest Hits (new window).

thismomentinblackhistory: I never bought as many CDs as I did when Napster was around.

Same here. Back in '99 my work HD was 4GB, when I ran out of room to store my .mp3s, I uninstalled Word to make room. Used Wordpad to type memos and letters.

poot_rootbeer: strangeguitar: I was (and still am) a metal guy. When Metallica first came out with the "No Life Til Leather" demo, he was getting all these interviews in metal fanzines saying: "Yeah! Tape trading!! Get the word out there!" He had no problem with the practice we all were doing at the time: Making mix tapes of new and obscure metal and trading them with friends. I realize that it had reached many more people with Napster than tape trading ever did, but it still was a bit hypocritical.

In 1983, Lars felt that it should be the artists' choice how their music is distributed.
In 2003, Lars felt that it should be the artists' choice how their music is distributed.

Metallica's anti-P2P campaigning was aloof and shortsighted, yes, but I don't see it as hypocritical.

i still don't get how some idiots don't understand that there is absolutely NO parallel between underground tape trading (yay, i have a 7th generation copy of a 4th generation copy of a 3rd generation copy of a demo tape! it sounds like shiat, but how cool is this!) and trading perfect cd-quality music files of songs with millions of file traders. IT ISN'T EVEN farkING CLOSE.

lars was right, guys. it IS stealing.

also, lars and metallica STILL didn't have a problem with people trading physical copies of no life 'til leathur and or copies of soundboard shows. they simply didn't want people transmitting thousands upon millions of copies of their studio works without their permission across the internets. it isn't that hard to understand, guys.

When my wife was a teenager, she was a huge Metallica nut. She had all their tshirts, knew all the lyrics to all the songs despite not speaking english at the time, and was even in the fanclub or whatever. She's from Uruguay, and she had to wait for weeks to get the stuff in the mail. She had to go to Buenos Aires to see them in concert. Just plain nuts about them. Hoo boy, don't mention the name Lars Ulrich to her now though, if you don't want some grade A angry ranting.

/hasn't happened in a while, but occasionally she hears one of their songs for the first time since learning english and goes "oh THATS what they were saying." It's pretty funny.

My Napster user name was Napster of Puppets

For the young'ns, the way it used to be...

(new window)

Glitchwerks: Bruxellensis: [www.p2p-weblog.com image 450x353]

RIP OiNK

It lives on through Waffles and What.cd.

I lost my what.cd account for inactivity. I sad now.

/was out of the country for too long

I don't even LIKE metallica (I listen to R&B and funk myself), but on the day Ulrich and his fellow assholes came out with their rant back in the day I went and found everything that group of morans had ever recorded, downloaded it from the newsgroups in 320 kbps MP3 quality or higher (wav files), and posted it on Napster. Left it for a month, had it downloaded over 2200 times, dumped it from my hard drives.

Warms the cockles of my heart that Ulrich et al didn't get a dime of it.

here to help: thismomentinblackhistory: I never bought as many CDs as I did when Napster was around.

If the record industry weren't a bunch of pompous, self absorbed, greedy blowhards they'd realize that by allowing people to sample the tracks they would INCREASE their sales. I mean what kind of idiot drops twenty bucks on an album they've never even heard? Sure if you are rabid fan of some band who put out a new release (I still wouldn't personally) but what about new acts?

Bootlegs. Killing what deserves to die.

well, they don't allow it by law, but people still do it, and guess what? cd sales are a pale comparison of what they used to be, because people ARE "sampling" the music and then realizing that there is no reason to go buy something you already stole.

miniflea: When my wife was a teenager, she was a huge Metallica nut. She had all their tshirts, knew all the lyrics to all the songs despite not speaking english at the time, and was even in the fanclub or whatever. She's from Uruguay, and she had to wait for weeks to get the stuff in the mail. She had to go to Buenos Aires to see them in concert. Just plain nuts about them. Hoo boy, don't mention the name Lars Ulrich to her now though, if you don't want some grade A angry ranting.

/hasn't happened in a while, but occasionally she hears one of their songs for the first time since learning english and goes "oh THATS what they were saying." It's pretty funny.

why would someone that gladly paid metallica for their music care so much that metallica was upset that people were stealing it?

/sense, this makes none.

Oh farkers, for shame...for shame!

frepnog: i still don't get how some idiots don't understand that there is absolutely NO parallel between underground tape trading (yay, i have a 7th generation copy of a 4th generation copy of a 3rd generation copy of a demo tape! it sounds like shiat, but how cool is this!) and trading perfect cd-quality music files of songs with millions of file traders. IT ISN'T EVEN farkING CLOSE.

lars was right, guys. it IS stealing.

also, lars and metallica STILL didn't have a problem with people trading physical copies of no life 'til leathur and or copies of soundboard shows. they simply didn't want people transmitting thousands upon millions of copies of their studio works without their permission across the internets. it isn't that hard to understand, guys.

File sharing is far less detrimental to the artist's bottom line (and as I said upthread in many cases it's an advantage) than the recording industry. Those f*cks are scum and why Metallica would stick their necks out (alienating their fanbase in the process) to protect them is beyond me. If it hadn't been for their absolutely HUGE and loyal following the record industry would never have even CONSIDERED signing a band like them. Meanwhile they'll put out lip synching jailbait whores over crappy mass produced sessions and call it f*cking music.

Sorry but they are in the wrong on this... and that's fine, but Ulrich brought it to such a level of douchery (by outright insulting and berating his own fans) that it became unforgivable.

frepnog: well, they don't allow it by law, but people still do it, and guess what? cd sales are a pale comparison of what they used to be, because people ARE "sampling" the music and then realizing that there is no reason to go buy something you already stole.

cd sales are a fraction of the music sales business. You need to include the music sales business as a whole.

Also, you need to consider the production of new content, since that's the REAL issue. There's more content out there than ever.

Also of note: Sean Parker's comparison of Spotify to Napster (new window)

imgod2u: frepnog: here to help: thismomentinblackhistory: I never bought as many CDs as I did when Napster was around.

If the record industry weren't a bunch of pompous, self absorbed, greedy blowhards they'd realize that by allowing people to sample the tracks they would INCREASE their sales. I mean what kind of idiot drops twenty bucks on an album they've never even heard? Sure if you are rabid fan of some band who put out a new release (I still wouldn't personally) but what about new acts?

Bootlegs. Killing what deserves to die.

well, they don't allow it by law, but people still do it, and guess what? cd sales are a pale comparison of what they used to be, because people ARE "sampling" the music and then realizing that there is no reason to go buy something you already stole.

Ya. It has nothing to do with this thing called iTunes or Amazon music store.....

Wait, what? They're both making record revenue? Who'd have thought

are they doing well? yep. are they doing anything that resembles mid 90's (pre napster) sales? no. farking. way. "record revenue" for online sales is all but meaninglessness, and the amount of times that the newest hot cd is downloaded for free DWARFS its sales figures, whether counting online mp3 sales or physical cd sales.

napster turned us all into thieves, and not JUST that, but thieves that delude themselves into thinking that they are somehow helping.

here to help: frepnog: i still don't get how some idiots don't understand that there is absolutely NO parallel between underground tape trading (yay, i have a 7th generation copy of a 4th generation copy of a 3rd generation copy of a demo tape! it sounds like shiat, but how cool is this!) and trading perfect cd-quality music files of songs with millions of file traders. IT ISN'T EVEN farkING CLOSE.

lars was right, guys. it IS stealing.

also, lars and metallica STILL didn't have a problem with people trading physical copies of no life 'til leathur and or copies of soundboard shows. they simply didn't want people transmitting thousands upon millions of copies of their studio works without their permission across the internets. it isn't that hard to understand, guys.

File sharing is far less detrimental to the artist's bottom line (and as I said upthread in many cases it's an advantage) than the recording industry. Those f*cks are scum and why Metallica would stick their necks out (alienating their fanbase in the process) to protect them is beyond me. If it hadn't been for their absolutely HUGE and loyal following the record industry would never have even CONSIDERED signing a band like them. Meanwhile they'll put out lip synching jailbait whores over crappy mass produced sessions and call it f*cking music.

Sorry but they are in the wrong on this... and that's fine, but Ulrich brought it to such a level of douchery (by outright insulting and berating his own fans) that it became unforgivable.

Same here, not disputing the fact it is stealing ....

lars just turned the dbag knob to 11.