The Revolution Will Be Digitized: File Downloading on the Internet

by Edward B. Driscoll, Jr.
Summer/Fall 2004

A few years ago, downloading music from the Internet was simple: you installed Napster and you were good to go. It may or may not have been legal, but by simply loading the Napster program onto your PC, and going online, a wealth of music was available to listen to and to exchange. Tens of thousands of other people were also online and file sharing was a breeze, especially if you were an early adopter of broadband. Then the environment began to change. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) created a PR nightmare for themselves by threatening users of peer-to-peer networks. When the RIAA managed to shut Napster down in 2001, their work only increased. Instead of one technology to monitor, a thousand flowers seemed to bloom in Napster's place.

A Crash Course on File Downloading
Music and video downloading began with the sharing of music files copied by listeners from their favorite CDs, records and cassettes. The thinking behind many of the users of file sharing is that if I own a song, I should be free to copy it, give it to others. Naturally, the RIAA doesn't agree with this sort of thinking. Essentially and legally, they're right, but because the recording industry dragged its heels in coming up with convenient legal alternatives (such as Listen.com, Emusic.com and Apple's iTunes), programs such as Kazaa (www.kazaa.com), Grokster (www.grokster.com), and others have flourished.

Most experts feel that the rise of these applications is due to the music industry's inability to understand the fundamental change that digital technology has brought to music. However, they also feel that peer-to-peer is going to play a part of how the music industry makes money, but not without license and royalty changes.

In a move that generated an outpouring of negative publicity, in June of 2003 the RIAA threatened to track down and sue users of file-sharing programs. The result? USA Today recently reported that "the percentage of people in the United States who download music files online has dropped by almost half -- from 35 million people down to 18 million since the RIAA launched its lawsuits". And that "steep declines in music downloading were noted among college-educated people (61% decline), parents with children living at home (58% decline) and women (58% decline)."

Kazaa: An Outpost from the Wild West
Kazaa is probably the best known of the many replacements to pop up in the wake of the original Napster's demise and the closest to Napster in its anything-goes style. Kazaa's Website states that Sharman Networks, Kazaa's parent company, has "no control over the content that you can find with Kazaa Media Desktop; the content is supplied by the users of the software."

Which, unfortunately, has several negative consequences. A recent study done by TruSecure, an Internet security firm, claimed that 45 percent of the executable files downloaded through Kazaa contain malicious code-like viruses and Trojan horses. So make sure you've got the latest version of whatever anti-virus program you're using, before you connect. Still, music files are not executables, so the total percentage of dangerous files may be very small.

In addition, Kazaa became rather infamous for including spyware features in its peer-to-peer programs. Spyware are tiny applications that monitor your Internet behavior for purposes of marketing. In response, diehard Kazaa users created a hacked version of the program and dubbed it "Kazaa Lite" which did not have the spyware ad-ins. However, during the summer of 2003, Sharman Networks shut down the original Kazaa Lite Website and updated their software to make Kazaa Lite less functional. The response? Similar to the original Napster and the RIAA, several rival Kazaa clones appeared.

The official Kazaa's software is available in two flavors: Kazaa Plus, which costs $29.95 to download and a free equivalent, which is currently at version 2.6. The $29.95 version has no ads, greater search features and 24-hour customer support from Sharman Networks.

We Want to Pay: iTunes
While the RIAA's lawsuits have caused a drop in file sharing and unpaid music downloading, an increasing number of consumers have signed up for paid online music services. Apple's iTunes attracted 2.7 million visitors in November 2003 alone. Apple's iTunes service was the first to make a big splash and, since it works on Macs and PCs, it is very popular. iTunes charges 99 cents for each download, but it's free to listen to 30-second snippets of each song. Simple, inexpensive and fun, iTunes is a huge success. It is clear that consumers will pay for music, if it is convenient for them to do so.

The Return of Napster
In time for Christmas of 2003, Roxio purchased Napster and the Napster brand name was reborn. This time, it was as a legal, pay-to-download service, offering over half a million tracks for download. Unlike previous version of Napster, videos are also available for download. It's also possible for parents to opt out of music that has a parental advisory label warning.

Napster has a two-tier pricing structure: for only 99 cents per track each or $9.95 per album, music can be downloaded and then burned to CD and transferred to a portable MP3 player.

The higher tier of Napster membership is a $9.95 per month membership fee. The same 99 cents a track and $9.95 an album fees still apply, but the monthly subscribers can sample full-length songs instead of 30-second music clips before purchasing a tune. They can listen to Napster's Internet radio service and can log-on to Napster's message boards. Imagine being able to listen to just about any song you want, at any time, and you'll have some idea of the potential for a Napster subscription.

Listen to the Bandwidth
Like the new version of Napster, Listen.com also straddles the fence between Internet radio and the ability to download individual songs. For $9.95 a month, listeners can download an unlimited number of songs. There's an enormous range of music and artists, although there are some holes that could drive listeners crazy, such as no Rolling Stones songs to download. Additionally, there are also plenty of Internet radio stations to chose from on Listen.com, which is available separately for half of Listen.com's $9.95 fee.

That fee is strictly for downloading into the company's Rhapsody software for playback, but they're not portable and they can't be uploaded to an MP3 player or burned onto a CD. You can easily purchase that type of copyright for 79 cents each song.

Radically Transforming Entertainment
There will always be fans exchanging files via the ‘Net, as well as thousands of music-oriented Web sites. Even as regulations made life more difficult for some, technology has made it easier than ever to put music and downloads online. Many new and independent bands have gotten their name out into the public via their own Web site, with downloadable music files. And plenty of MP3 trading goes on in Usenet newsgroups such as alt.binaries.music.mp3.

All of these various sites and groups are part of the rich array of music the Web has to offer. For many, the days of paying $15.95 for a CD with one great song are history. Music is no longer simply a shrink-wrapped product, purchased in retail stores and rock videos are no longer strictly the province of cable channels such as MTV. Some even speculate that the demise of the CD and maybe even the radio is at hand. With a broadband connection and a music subscription, you can listen to any song you want, any time you want: why would you even need to ever own a song or listen to what someone else thinks you want to hear?