Napster, P2P and Mp3
Napster, P2P and Mp3 are names that are heard daily on the music and computer market right now. Napster being a new programme and P2P, Mp3 being old programmes recovered. P2P has been around for already many years, but nobody ever took advantage of this technology since at that point in time there was no use and need for it. The same goes for Mp3. However, the arrival of the new Napster program suddenly seamed to reawaken the other two technologies, which are today assumed to be common knowledge.
First came Mp3
To explain where Mp3 comes from one has to go back in time, into the year 1987. A German engineering company called Frauenhofer Institut devised a compression standard known as MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, better known as Mp3. Frauenhofer Institut was trying to solve a vexing problem: how to broadcast digital audio. CD-quality sound files that were just too big and totally unmanageable. At the end of the experiments they found out that one could compress files in a way that eliminated the extraneous noise and only left the necessary bits. However, there was no real use for such technology by PC users, and that was mainly due to the slow modems and processors available at that time.
People started to forget about the concept called Mp3, but it was never completely forgotten.
Well, what does Mp3 mean exactly?
The Mp3 format is a compression system for music. The Mp3 format helps to reduce the number of bytes in a song without seriously damaging the quality of the song’s sound. The aim of the Mp3 format is to compress a CD-quality song by a factor of 10 to 14 without losing the CD quality of the sound. With Mp3 it is possible to compress a 32-megabyte song of a CD down to 3 megabytes or even less. What happens during compression is that are all the sounds are taken out that a human ear cannot hear and the sounds the human ear can hear are left. When two sounds are playing at the same time one hears only the louder and not the softer one, so the softer sound is also going to be removed. This action is called “premasking” or “postmasking”. Mp3 and other perceptual codes filter out just like nature, the data from the dataflow that are based on their frequencies or do to the described masking-effect, not heard by humans. Through this reduction of unnecessary sounds, the song has been reduced to such a low number of mega bytes that it lets one download a song in minutes rather than hours, and it lets one store hundreds of songs on ones computer’s hard disk without taking up too much space.
By compression it is seen that the size of the song is far less than the original, although it does not hurt the quality of the song for the listener, it does not, however, sound exactly like the original anymore, but it will be really close.
Due to its size, it is easy to move around a song on the Internet and can easily be stored.
P2P
P2P stands for “peer-to-peer” computer networking.
A short definition of P2P from the Internet dictionary Webopedia describes it as:
“ A type of network in which each workstation has equivalent capabilities and responsibilities. This differs from client/ server architectures, in which some computers are dedicated to serving the others.”
This means that computers in a workgroup, or home computers are configured for the sharing of resources and files and printers. Although one computer may act as the filter server at any given time, all computers on the network generally could host those services on short notice. In particular, the computer will typically be situated near each other physically and will run the same networking protocols.
P2P has been around for years already, but it was not used, just like Mp3. Now, as Napster has turned over the music industry, P2P as well as Mp3 have their comeback. However, P2P in its traditional image has changed. It has been transformed into a system that allows users to find a way to avoid the much-controlled Internet sites, such as any sites dealing with music sharing or similar things.
Napster
Napster, the Mp3 file-sharing system became the single most popular P2P application literally overnight. However, Napster is not P2P in the strictest sense, because it uses a centralized server to store pointers and resolve addresses. Napster represents the new type of P2P, since with this technology not only small workgroups are connected but also larger groups and people from all over the world can connect. Everybody is able to connect to the network with ease from anywhere with little effort; instead of dedicated LAN’s and WAN’s, the Internet itself becomes the network of choice.
How and why did Napster come about?
The concept of Napster, free Mp3 file sharing, sounded impossible, but in 1999 the 18-year-old student Shawn Fanning began to develop a program that should make it possible. “The idea for Napster just came to him as he was sitting in his dorm room at Northeastern University in Boston, hanging out with his bros, drinking a brew and listening to his roommate whine about dead MP3 links.” Fanning had taught himself the elements of UNIX programming during high school. At Northeastern University he was studying computer programming, but however, he dropped out after the first semester when the idea about an Mp3 free file sharing system became too big. As already mentioned, Fanning was sitting with roommates when he started thinking about the system. From that point on he devoted his whole free time to developing the program. When he finished the program he gave a prototype to a couple friends of his to try it out, and told them to keep it secret. Those friends were so amazed about the system that they could not keep it secret any longer. They put the Napster prototype on the net. In the first days, already thousands of people had downloaded the program. Fanning stunned by the impact decided to drop out of university and to devote his time into developing the system further. Napster, Inc. was incorporated in May 1999, and Fanning moved the company to Northern California. He named the company “Napster” after a high school nickname that he received because of his curled hair. His program was to be a search engine that was dedicated to finding Mp3 files only, also it was to be able to share files without having to use a centralized server for storage and it should include an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) room in which Mp3 users could find Mp3 files and chat with each other.
What he did was to combine the key elements of existing programs such as the Instant Messaging System of IRC, the file-sharing functions of Microsoft Windows and the advanced searching and filtering capabilities of various search engines to produce a Napster network.
What does a Napster network look like?
Steps involved:
- User logs in to Napster
- Napster checks for an Internet connection, when found it logs onto the central server
- User sends request for a song
- Napster checks its database of music to see if the song is on a PC of another Napster user elsewhere on the Internet
- Whenever the match is found, the Napster server informs one’s computer where to find the requested file
- A list of the requested song is shown in the results window
- A double click on the file of interest will now start the download. By downloading the file of someone else’s computer, it is seen that no files are ever stored on the Napster server. Napster only connects the user’s PC with someone else’s PC, where then the files can be shared.
- When the download is finished, the host computer breaks the connection with the user’s system
- The file is now saved on the PC and one is able to listen to the new downloaded song.
New Groups through new Technology
The arrival of the new Napster technology did not only made it possible for people to download songs and listen to them for free, it also gives unknown music groups the opportunity to become better known.
This also changed the part that the record companies play in deciding which artists are valuable and which are not.
“I see Napster as a new way of exposure. The fans found a new technology, and a lot of artists will be able to share a bigger money pie that has been dominated by four major corporations (the record companies) who want to dominate how music is distributed.” Chuck D.
Before the music lovers had access to music files over the Internet, it was extremely hard for unknown groups to become known since only the record companies could decide on the groups being good or bad. Now, things have changed. Nowadays the record companies are still the one’s that decide if they take the band in or not, but mostly they now have to go after what the music lovers like and see what music they want to listen to.
“Why aren’t record companies embracing this great opportunity? Why aren’t they trying to talk to kids…to learn what they like?” Courtney Love
That means that bands, such as unknown groups now, through distribution of songs on the Internet, have a better chance to obtain a contract, than they had before.
A good example here is Ginger MacKenzie. She is one of the singers that started of her career by sharing her songs free over the Internet. She did not have a contract with a record company, so she just uploaded her songs on the Net and people started to download her songs.
“I put some songs up on Mp3.com last year,” the singer recalls when asked to explain her meteoric CD sales. Mp3.com has become the first step for many unknown acts who hope to use the Internet to advance their careers. Mp3.com named her “Best Pop and Rock Artist of 1999.” That distinction helped generate hundreds of thousands of free downloads of her songs from the site, which in turn resulted in tens of thousands of CD sales “in places like the UK, Syria, just about everywhere,” she says.
After having songs on the Internet for free download, MacKenzie sold 20’000 copies of her album “Kismet” and went to No. 1 on MP3.com worldwide. Her songs were also featured on NBC’s hit show Providence and on a Miramax film ad soundtrack.
Even if this example is related to the Internet site Mp3.com, the same goes for Napster. Singers of every Nation were able to get their career started do to free downloads from Napster or different providers.
Groups become known all over the World
Music is listened to all over the world, but not all countries listen to all music. Some countries have made restrictions for their radio stations to play only a certain type of music. A good example is Canada. Canada has made a limitation on the amount of non-native music being played on the radio. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) has recently decided over a new regulation, which says that at least 35% of the songs played in a day must be by native singers. This decision was made on August 21, 2000. But where does Napster come in? Well, through the arrival of Napster a whole new music source has become available for people. Since 1999 people from anywhere in this world now have the chance to listen to music from all over the world, this also meaning, since there are no restrictions on Napster for certain amounts of native music, people are able to listen to even banned music. Napster has made it possible for everybody to listen to music from anywhere.
This interconnecting of music and different music styles has created a bridge for many people. Napster also helped to break down old cultural indifferences and other difficulties. In that sense, Napster helped to create new groups as well that it was able to build bridges between continents, countries, cultures and of course many thousands of people.
What is happening to Napster right now?
As it was explained before, Napster uses a centralized server to store pointers and resolve addresses. This meaning, that when someone sends a request for a song, Napster finds out on who’s PC this song is available and then connects the two with each other. So, the file requested is never stored on the Napster server. However, the problem is, that Napster is actually nothing else but an automated way to illegally copy copyrighted material. Fanning realised that he was in real trouble with the major record companies and he did not have either the business experience or the legal knowledge to face them on his own. He needed expert help. Napster, now a properly registered company and is managed by several experienced business people, and not only by Shawn Fanning himself. The company now includes a Chief Executive Officer, who worked as Chief Administrative Officer of BMG. There he was responsible for finance, business affairs and legal, strategic development. Then the company has an Executive Vice President who used to serve at the Legal Committee of the RIAA and the Board of the AARC. He began however, as a lawyer. The whole Napster Company is saying in defence to this that the files shared are personal data which people maintain on their own PC’s, so therefore Napster is not responsible for this. But it is a fact that thousands of people are making thousands of copies of copyrighted songs, and neither the music industry nor the artists get any money in return for those copies.
The outcome of this was, “major record labels” such as Universal, Sony and BMG, “with the assistance of the Recording Industry Association of America sued, in order to block Napster from allowing the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted songs.”Not only the record companies sued Napster, but also musicians. The band Metallica for example, sued Napster saying that all the people behind the band and the whole music world have rights too, certainly the right to get paid. Many artists even need the money to survive, and when people just get the music for free they will not be able to get the money they would have usually get to pay the costs.
So Napster is in court now and is being sued, they will be judged on ethical rights and moral issues. Right here it can be seen that there is a major issue why suddenly Napster employed so many people to do the business. Here we should not forget that Napster was found and owned by an 18-year-old university drop out that is probably not able to defend himself in such a case, even though he knows for himself that he did not do anything illegal.
But what will all the other people do now when they are not able to download things from Napster anymore? Are there any alternatives to Napster where one can get more music for free?
The answer is yes. There are different websites where one can download music for free, the most popular sites being right now are:
- Gnutella
- Filetopia
- Morpheus
Gnutella is the oldest of those three systems. It is based, like Napster, on a P2P system. However there is a major difference between Napster and Gnutella. Gnutella has unlike Napster no server, and behind the whole system there is no parent company registered, which means that everything is strict anonymous. The user here logs on with an IP-Address that has been picked at random. With this IP-Address the user one is sending a request for a song. When user two being online has this song, his IP-Address is being send to user one who then connects to user two’s PC via this IP Address and then can start downloading the requested song.
Filetopia is basically being the “smaller brother” of Napster. Bitmap Multimedia – a small company based in Spain, has developed Filetopia. Bitmap Multimedia has used the same features as Napster; however, they managed to make it more secure. Filetopia also includes, beside a file sharing system, instant messaging, chat, e-mail, online friends list and a message board. It has been the biggest alternative until the new system Morpheus came about.
Morpheus combines many features that have made other file-sharing services successful. Like Gnutella, Morpheus has no central server. The program allows one to download the same file from different people at the same time, which drastically decreases downloading time. The program automatically resumes broken downloads by finding another source. Other features include play list creation, an embedded Microsoft media player for audio and video playback, and instant messaging.
Conclusion:
The arrival of the new computer program Napster has changed the world of music in only a short period of time. Many people have used the opportunity of free Mp3 file
sharing to download songs for their own personal use. The new technology developed by Shawn Fanning, was produced originally to make it easier for his roommates to share files with other people from around the world. This program, not even 100% finished, was by mistake put onto the Net, and in less than a year it managed to pass the 25 million mark. Who would have thought that Napster would be so successful? However, with the success, many things got out of hand. Thousands of people all over the world started downloading copyrighted songs from the Internet to make illegal copies. Record companies sued Napster soon for illegally providing copyrighted songs. With that, other systems had the advantage of taking over Napster’s place, such as Gnutella, Morpheus and Filetopia. As seen, Napster is not dead, but others have taken over, but however, the main idea of Napster will never die out because this is just what people want. People do not want to miss the chance to bring out new groups, new bands, and be connected to the whole world and at the same time download free music.
It can be said, that Napster had a huge impact on the music business, but if it is positive or negative cannot yet be said, the whole issue is still too new. Maybe in a year or two we can look back and see what happened and then decide, but for now I would conclude that Napster is positive for the mass, for the record companies it is a threat and in all it has a huge impact on the issue of copying copyrighted songs.
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User interface load outside of a web browser
User computers can act as both clients and servers
The overall system is easy to use and well-integrated
The system includes tools to support users wanting to create content or add functionality
The system provides connections with other users
The system does something new or exciting
The system supports “cross-network” protocols
Time, October 2, 2000 pg.67
Rapper Chuck D, Napster’s free song downloads rankle the music industry, May 2000
The wife of the deceased singer Curt Kobain
Gowan, M. New Wave Music, PCWorld.com
Refer to “What does a Napster network look like?”
King, Howard, “Why Metallica sued Napster”