In the early 1990s, the internet was something that only a few knew about or understood. Access was painstakingly slow (“the world wide wait”). It held little practical value for most people.
But over the next decade, storage capacities and transmission speeds exploded. It became important for most people to have email, home internet access, and eventually a broadband connection.
Still, only short clips of music files were shared online…they were just too large to be reasonably transmitted online, even over broadband.
Then came MP3. With a filesize one-tenth that of .wav files, this friendly little format allowed music to be ripped from a CD and posted on a web site, attached to an email, or placed in online folders to be shared with friends and associates.
Napster was the first to popularize the concept of online music file-sharing. Others (Kazaa, Morpheus, Gnutella, Limewire) improved upon the concept. Now, people could copy and share their music with anyone who wanted it. It was completely free. As long as somewhere, somewhere bought a single copy…the rest of the world could partake without spending a dime. People were burning custom CDs right and left. Blank CDs, at 50 cents apiece, were a steal compared to $15 albums.
And then, the coup de grace…the iPod. Drop some decent coin for one of these little magic boxes and forget about the need to even burn CDs.
Free music had become truly free.
Or so it seemed...
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