6. Their Napster Debacle: Revolutionising The Future Of Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r6wn47_Vqs In the year 2000, Metallica sued the peer-to-peer file sharing service known as Napster for illegally distributing their music across the world via the internet. The entire situation was a huge black eye on the Metallica legacy, as it portrayed them as greedy musicians who were only out to make more millions than they already had. By suing Napster, they effectively stuck a huge middle finger up to fans across the globe who were only discovering a new way to own their music. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in Metallica's favour however, and Napster was forced to remove all their files from the service. While this was certainly a huge blow for Napster, it was actually an even bigger win for music fans worldwide as it increased awareness of P2P file sharing, which subsequently changed the way we all gathered music during that time. Metallica's decision to sue Napster effectively ushered in a new era for music lovers everywhere, providing them a new means for accessing music, and it then provided new artists who were eager to get their music heard with an outlet to provide their music free of charge to music fans across the globe. For everything said about Metallica for this monumental decision to sue Napster, they had actually created a familiarity of a newer, more accessible outlet for fans to gather music...and for bands to get their word out.