Napster's Impact on the Music Industry

Napster was created by Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning and was launched in 1999. They were 17 and 18 respectively. Before Napster, getting music off the internet was extremely tricky and after the creation, it had 57 million users at its peak. Music was something that was bought after protracted debate with friends in aisles. Songs became accessible from home. They didn't cost anything. MP3 had become the dominant format for digital download in the mid 1990's. By October of the year of release it had 4 million songs in circulation and the Napster users consisted of 20 million people. The heads of major music labels gathered together to create a plan to eliminate Napster as they knew it was a threat.