The now infamous Napster peer-to-peer file sharing program recently marked its 10-year anniversary, causing many music industry insiders to reflect back on the music industry then and now.
One such person who shared her thoughts was former Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) CEO Hillary Rosen.
Even though the RIAA eventually cracked down on Napster, it was an important issue because it "brought consumers into the discussion for the first time," Rosen said in a recent interview with Billboard.
"All of a sudden, record companies started hearing from music fans in a way they never had before," Rossen said. "The 'customer' for record companies for many years were radio stations and record stores. All of a sudden record companies were on the hook from music fans."
Indeed, the record labels never had to listen directly to consumers before, but Napster's ability to let consumers pick and choose their music altered the music landscape. The RIAA successfully had Napster shut down, but the infrastructure for modern P2P already started a revolution that is still giving the RIAA fits today.
"Napster had promised they were going to go from a free service to a pay service. By the time those promises had occurred, peer-to-peer had become much more widespread outside the Napster system. So it ended up being much more complicated to figure out how to create a system as user friendly as Napster in a pay environment that could compete effectively with P2P."
It should be interesting to see if the RIAA is willing to work better with both artists and music fans, as the industry continues to struggle with dwindling CD sales. I don't expect a lot of change from the RIAA any time soon, and doubt music fans will have a lot to be happy with in the immediate future.
So, when is the last time you went into a store and purchased a music CD?
