boycott-riaa.com - Article: Napster's User Base is Growing

Napster's User Base is Growing

Posted by Heidi Chambers on January 8, 2001 at 8:35 PM (printer friendly)

As I was reading the October 2000 issue of Entertainment Weekly I came across an article titled "Loser Takes All" about Napster's large user base growth during their court case with the RIAA. It just made me think that maybe if Metallica, other musicians, and even the RIAA itself had never created such a fuss over the software to begin with, "Would Napster be as big as it is today anyway?"

From the magazine: "There's nothing like old-fashioned legal turmoil to get folks to do something. While the battle raged over file-sharing music site Napster, usage quadrupled from February to July. The courts issued an injunction against it in July, but that was quickly delayed. And as some labels and artists continue to argue against it (Metallica's Lars Ulrich testified), the numbers show that even bad publicity can be good."

The article also shows a graph with Napster's registered users rising from one million in February 2000 to nearly five million in July 2000. In the latest Napster.com newsletter, Shawn Fanning (Napster's creator) said the company was approaching 50 million registered users with as many as 1.3 million using the service at the same time.

Links:

link(www.napster.com,Napster.com)

User Comments (These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)


Gwusu	Date: January 8, 2001 @ 9:30 PM it's pretty amazing if you think about big napster has grown. cr@zyness.

richieZ	Date: January 8, 2001 @ 9:35 PM "there is no such thing as bad publicity...." i have heard that said a million times. i dont always agree with it, but this is certainly one of those occasions where it is true. thanks for the article heidi...

skrath	Date: January 8, 2001 @ 10:42 PM heh heh... metallica sucks

pox05	Date: January 9, 2001 @ 1:40 AM metallica sucks as much as porn on deviantart, thats a lot by the way... - p o x O 5 -

seas	Date: January 9, 2001 @ 3:51 AM since they dont make any good music anymore, all they can do is bitch bitch bitch. i wonder if metalickers record sales went up with this whole thing? think not =)

milladrive	Date: January 9, 2001 @ 12:39 PM Look at everybody reactin' to the simple mention of a 6-month-old testimony. What a goof. Heidi, let's turn the tables and pull out _our_ crystal ball. Let's think about how many more users they'd have if nobody were forced to acquire copies on plastic discs. I wonder how many users are lost every year ta the labels. lol Another article deserved of praise.

Anonymous	Date: January 9, 2001 @ 2:23 PM Ummm, The October 2000 issue of EW doesn't make sense as this is a weekly publication. Therefore there was more than one EW published in october 2000. Which one was it?

premise	Date: January 9, 2001 @ 5:20 PM Napster up, RIAA and METALLICA DOWN BIOTCHES! Ok, I know that wasent the most edumacated responses, but it's sounds cool and gets the point across ;P (Heidi is still my fav pornstar)

Heidi	Date: January 9, 2001 @ 7:39 PM I just checked for you and it was issue #562. Hope this helps. ~Heidi

doobybrain	Date: January 9, 2001 @ 10:11 PM damn, when is napster gonna stop growing. i bet most of the new users are people signing up for a different name because the one they used to have either got blocked or cant be used anymore. heh. no wonder they have so many registered users. [doobybrain]

Heidi	Date: January 10, 2001 @ 12:26 AM Why thank you. :) ~Heidi

homogenuity	Date: January 10, 2001 @ 1:18 AM it has been said, has it not, that there are three kinds of lie? :) a lie, a damn lie ... and a statistic. how useful are those numbers? especially given that they come from the source. an independent report would be far more trustworthy. i'm aware that even i have some 4 odd napster accounts, simply because i've forgotten my password when reformatting. so while i grant that napster is of course growing, the simple truth is that the actual numbers are probably far from what the service's operators would have us believe. those who paint'em, truest, praise'em most, right?

babyraven	Date: January 10, 2001 @ 8:41 AM It only seems logical to me. Media = advertising, whether that's the intent or not. I have family members wo have never touched a computer, yet they know what mp3s are, and to some degree how Napster works. I'm sure that, similarly, many slightly more technically inclined folks, be they new to technology or no, heard the reports and wanted to check to see what all the buzz was about. And we all know what happens once you get started with Napster... There's no more powerful advertisement than media coverage!

Anonymous	Date: January 10, 2001 @ 9:24 AM LEt's think about this.....If a user signs up again under a different name because they have been banned or whatever.....Then they would have been removed...would they have not??? And as far as there not being as many users as they claim....figure it this way.....it's like a television......some people are on certain channels while others are not.....100 people from your state are probably logged on at the same time you are...even when added to hotlist, it might say there offline....when in fact they are not.....With napster, there are different servers that users go on....Napigator.com is proof of that.....As far as the bedwetters are concerned..(better know as Pooptallica)guys who sue "Victoria Secrets" really must not have anything better to do....I mean c'mon, what rate does there education amount to.....Lars trying to look spiffy in court still doesn't hide the fact that deep down......he is WHITE TRASH along with the rest of them....Tools like napster are needed......Just cause the corporate yuppies out there can't get a piece of it, they have to knock it.....Well they should have thought about that when hmmmmm, "CD RIPPERS" came out ya think?????????? Thank You....Goodnight!

milladrive	Date: January 10, 2001 @ 9:52 AM What part didn't'ch00 understand?

milladrive	Date: January 10, 2001 @ 1:31 PM Dee, I was goofing. The RIAA is always bitchin' about how they lose sales ta Napster users. I simply turned the tables for the sake of whimsical hypothesis. :)

kickinthecrack	Date: January 11, 2001 @ 9:22 AM But, think about this.....Germany, Russia, USA(alone) Canada, France, Italy......A lot of people when it all comes down to it...especially in the USA alone......Also, the names are no longer on the server, that I do know.....for instance...friends of mine have been banned and when they try to log in under that name....the server won't allow them to gain access. As far as AOL is concerned, they suck.....(no offense if you like them) Just my opinion....but I believe AOL has just a little bit more than they do. Of course, AOL you pay for, napster you do not....With all these people complaining about napster and the artists wondering how their songs get leaked out to the internet....."CD RIPPERS" NOBODY has gone after the makers of those companies...Make the tools to do all of this "illegal" mumbo jumbo......Then they say, "Don't do it!" Pot calling the kettle black....Long live Napster...It's definitely the only one of its kind..8)