Credit: Photo by John Anderson

Downloaded: The SXSW Interview

Austin Convention Center, Wednesday, March 14

It’s easy to look back and laugh at all the disastrous mistakes and miscalculations of Napster from atop a mountain of cash, so perhaps it’s not surprising that founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning are now able to offer such a candid perspective on the cataclysmic rise and crash of their infamous peer-to-peer music-sharing platform. “We were both totally inexperienced and didn’t know what we were doing,” admitted Parker to actor Alex Winter, director of upcoming Napster documentary Downloaded. Parker and Fanning provided no shortage of hindsight in trying to decipher what all went wrong with the company. And nearly everything went wrong, from poor hiring and management decisions to legal assaults completely unanticipated by the then-teenagers. “Our CEO was literally an attorney,” emphasized Parker onstage. “The legal case was dictating the product.” What the interview highlighted, however, is that as the digital music revolution matures, Napster’s legacy is being more finely spun. The early disruptive innovations are now bookended with the promise of the Parker-invested streaming service, Spotify, and with the two co-founders reuniting in their new start-up, Airtime, that spin is now also pushing Napster as a precedent to serendipitous social connection online. Regardless, the history of Napster will continue to evolve over the next decade as the invention that opened the Pandora’s box of digital distribution and online rights.

This article appears in March 16 • 2012.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.