How the music industry blew it

John Alderman's "Sonic Boom" recounts the history of Napster -- and the unstoppable rise of file trading.

By Richard Barbrook

Nov. 30, 2001 | "They just don't get it." During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, this catchphrase was a popular way of dismissing anyone who expressed doubts about the world-historical significance of the Net. How could someone be so out of touch as not to realize that this technology was transforming everything: business, politics, culture and even personal relationships? The future would belong to those who did "get it."

Yet, only a couple of years later, such optimism about the potential of the Net already sounds dated. How can anyone still believe that this technology will change anything after the implosion of the NASDAQ share bubble and the collapse of so many dot-com companies? Surely the wild times of the Net were only a temporary aberration: As Microsoft, AOL Time Warner and the other big corporations take over cyberspace, it will soon be back to business as usual. There is no longer any necessity to get it. The Net will change nothing.

John Alderman's new book, "Sonic Boom: Napster, P2P and the Battle for the Future of Music," is a useful correction to this new consensus. Just as it was once necessary to criticize dot-com boosters, it is now important to challenge the Net pessimists. In "Sonic Boom," John Alderman tells the cautionary tale of a rich and powerful industry that was determined not to get it -- and how it suffered the consequences of this mistake. During the late 1990s, while so many others were succumbing to dot-com hype, the music business stubbornly resisted any accommodation with the new technology. Its corporate leaders used all of their lobbying power and legal resources to attack the Net. They had the copyright laws strengthened, blocked software development and closed down Web sites. They even successfully prosecuted Napster -- one of the most popular services on the Net. Yet, despite these triumphs, all their efforts could only delay the inevitable. For while others might comfort themselves that nothing much has changed, the music industry is finally realizing -- much to its horror -- that the Net is transforming everything.

"Sonic Boom" is a journalist's account of this transitional period in media history. In the best tradition of the genre, John Alderman provides a well-paced narrative of the key events and insightful descriptions of its leading players. Above all, he explains why the music business has been so determined to resist the Net. From its earliest days, the new communications system was organized around the sharing of information between its users. Despite its recent commercialization, this gift economy remains at the heart of the Net. People build their own Web sites, contribute to mailing lists, send e-mails and take part in chat rooms. If someone asks for some information, they are usually happy to give it to them.

As long as the Net was only used by a minority of enthusiasts, the music industry could ignore what was going on in cyberspace. However, complacency was no longer an option when advances in hardware and software meant that large numbers of people started sharing music files with each other. Meeting through services such as Napster, Net users could usually find someone who would give them copies of tunes they were looking for -- and, in return, they were delighted to send out tracks from their own collections to those who requested them.

For music fans, file sharing is a dream come true. From the latest releases to deleted rarities, everything is available for only the cost of connecting to the Net. Someone somewhere must have made a copy of that sought-after track from their CD and vinyl collection -- and, more than likely, lots of other people will have copies of their copy. But, for music industry executives, file sharing is their worst nightmare about home taping from the 1970s come back to haunt them. Although accessing the Net still costs money, downloaded music is free. Worst of all, this high-tech gift economy isn't just a short-lived phenomenon. One of the main reasons why the Net was invented in the first place was to allow file-sharing between computers in different locations. More than 30 years later, this concept is at the center of another wave of technological innovation: peer-to-peer computing (P2P). Contemporary developers are enabling computers, mobile phones, game consoles and all sorts of other devices to interact with each other. Everything linked with everything. Everyone swapping files with everyone.

Next page: A youth subculture that the music biz couldn't coopt