If you're into music, you've probably heard of Napster. After all, the word is practically a household name. Popping up in television shows such as Futurama and South Park, and referenced multiple times on Wikipedia, Napster has been turned into a cultural icon, even somewhat immortalized.

In The Beginning

Until the late 1990s, sharing and downloading files on the Internet wasn't the piece of cake it is today. Back then, you either had to dial in to a bulletin board on someone else's computer, or go to places like USENET to upload or download content.

Launched in 1999, Napster was the first big peer-to-peer file sharing network, and it specialized in music. It was immensely popular, boasting millions of users worldwide, and had a huge selection of material available.

Unfortunately, the content being shared was protected by copyright laws, and Napster was in violation. Heavy metal band Metallica was one of the first in a parade of artists to sue. This was followed by a flurry of highly publicized lawsuits, which had the opposite of their intended effect: to draw thousands of supporters, fans, spectators and most importantly users to Napster.

Somewhere In the Middle

Argument and debate surrounding Napster were mostly centered on copyright violations. The company appealed, citing fair use as grounds, but was quickly shot down. Despite the fact that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) backed numerous artists in the claim that Napster's service would hurt sales, there were others who disagreed.

Not every artist was signed with a big-name label, and marketing yourself in the music industry isn't cheap. For many musicians, Napster was a free promotional tool - despite the music industry's assertions to the contrary,

In response to the controvery, Napster tried to switch to a paid service, but the move failed. Napster was unable to gain licenses to distribute music from the major labels.

By September of 2002, Napster was shut down. The company filed for bankruptcy and was forced to liquidate its assets. Napster's remains were eventually auctioned off to the highest bidder, Roxio Inc., and relaunched as a paid service.

Napster Now

Today's Napster is still a highly popular venue for downloading music. You can create your own playlists, burn downloaded content onto CDs, or even store you music on up to three of your own personal computers. This is a nice feature; many of Napster's competitors restrict use to only one or two computers. There are millions of songs available for purchase, and Napster even offers a free version of its site offering a limited selection of content.

To listen to the free songs there's no need to download or install anything, but you're unable to save them on your hard drive. So if you want to hear them again, you'd need to go back to the Napster site and access them from there. However, Napster-To-Go is $9.99 a month for "unlimited" access to their music archives. To me, the price is worth it because I can put the songs on my MP3 player and take them with me.

While it's not the edgy-cool place it used to be, Napster's still a great site for downloading, or listening to, great music.