The Napster of 13 years ago was vastly superior to any legal music service available today, including Spotify, says Sean Parker, a mover and shaker in both companies. And he’s right.
Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning were speaking at the SXSW Music Festival and Conference this week. Parker is an investor in Spotify, a legal licensed service, unlike the original pirate Napster. So you’d expect him to talk it up – and he does.
But Parker pointed out that even in its rudimentary state, Napster had a real-time chat channel built in, enabling file-sharers to communicate. It also gave you an insight into somebody’s personality by allowing you to browse their digital record collection. You can see why he thinks its important: Fanning and Parker originally met on IRC.
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