http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-broke-the-music-business

This is worth the read.

Fascinating article about the rise to power of music thieves in the early Internet age, and how all of the albums and movies we illegally downloaded in college made their way onto the web

Very long, very cool article.

As someone who grew up in that era and used Napster in HS, it's pretty fascinating to see all the behind the scenes workings that got that music to the internet.

Interesting article.

not what i was expecting. good read.

Thanks. I enjoyed the read.

Very interesting! For all of us who were around during Napster's heyday, this is a really good read.

Awesome article! Thank you for sharing. Pretty amazing story.

Only 3 months of jail time?

Very interesting story. Glad I read it

Great read

I never realized most of the music was shared pre release...I just assumed people were ripping the CD and sharing.

interesting article

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i still can't believe just how badly the music industry handled the whole digital music situation

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No question it was handled about as poorly as it could have been, but one thing to keep in perspective is what a massive change digital delivery was for a global industry. It was unrealistic to expect corporations to change as quickly as technology did - Napster was a speed boat and the music industry was an oil tanker - one can turn on a dime and the other requires a long slow turn.

Don't misinterpret this as a defense of the industry, there were incredibly idiotic decisions made at the top. I would suggest, however, that even if they had reacted immediately and correctly, it still wouldn't have been enough. At the end of the day, there is no price point on earth that competes with free. Just food for thought.

Reminds me of that book, "The Innovator's Dilemma." You can be the absolute best at what you do and a year later completely crash and burn because of one disruptive change.

The closest thing I can remember along the lines of such a massive change was when the oil crisis hit in the 70s and the American automotive industry was suddenly in a marketplace where the consumer wanted fuel efficiency and they were making gas guzzlers. It took a while for them to recover, and they didn't have the internet to deal with. I wonder at times how truly different the landscape would be if the best possible decisions had been made at the time - a lot of dominos fell, hard to know how many of them would have anyway.

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At the end of the day, there is no price point on earth that competes with free. Just food for thought.

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It baffles me that a guy like Jay Z, who is one of the smartest business minds in music doesn't realize this either. And he's wondering why nobody is subscribing to Tidal.