May 22, 2000

12:49 PM

Napster finds financial supportVenture capital firm Hummer Winblad are pumping $15m into Napster, effectively taking over the company by placing co-founder John Hummer on Napster's board.
posted by prolific (3 comments total)

I'm...shocked. Napster's legal future doesn't look bright from where I'm sitting.
break to actually read the darned thing
Oh, I see. I'm not sure if the reporter has HW's motives quite pinned down, but it's an interesting theory. Check it out. Any ideas on what an RIAA-dominated Napster would look like?
posted by lbergstr at 1:34 PM on May 22, 2000

Well, it should be completely clear that unless Napster and other Napster-class products are modified to provide a revenue stream, there is going to be at some point a financial crisis in the music industry. That's not news.
posted by dhartung at 7:59 PM on May 22, 2000

No matter how you color it, it really comes down to whether or not music artists care about getting money from people that are not really fans. Fans will always support artists.

All digital media is setup to be taken by anyone that puts forth effort. We ride off the coattails of hackers and napster is the first time that that the nature of the beast has been paraded in front of the world.

Is this an issue of bandwidth? Software has been dealing with piracy for a long time. Everything that comes out is cracked and ready to download the same day.

When bandwith allows movies, books, and software to have a napster, is it going to destroy every creative endeavor ever conceived?

Lars made it very clear in his debate on Charlie Rose, that it is about control. When you talk about control then you have to determine whether people have the capacity to support the things they enjoy.
posted by john at 10:46 PM on May 22, 2000