Napster documentary Downloaded to premier at SXSW

A documentary directed by Alex Winters, the most excellent companion to Keanu Reeve's Ted, from Bill and Ted, called Downloaded, is set to debut at the South by South West festival, chronicling the rise and fall of the internet's first dominant, Peer to Peer file transfer service, Napster, and its impact on the world.

The feature length documentary is said to focus on the founders of Napster: Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker and how they went from high-school students to millionaires running a giant company that rattled the foundations of the music industry. In the trailer it's interesting to see the archived footage of the pair – looking far more fresh faced than they do now, while also hearing from many musicians that felt they were being stolen from. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ai6K2VIEXM']

However we also hear the other perspective, where people describe the downturn of the music industry's profits as due to stagnation. Noal Gallagher says at one point that he thought the way the music business had been going for the past 50 years, “worked,” which perfectly encapsulates what others were saying: the industry was evolving without the big players of the past.

While Napster was eventually shut down a mere two years after its popularity spike, Downloaded describes it as beginning a revolution on the internet, showing people that they could do things differently. This has been played out in contemporary society too, with the likes of Netflix and Spotify doing things with media that the giants of old didn't envisage and are only slowly coming around to now.

KitGuru Says: I'm looking forward to when this is available. I'll be a good boy though and watch it on Netflix, not download it. Maybe.

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