A new documentary on the rise and fall of Napster, the peer-to-peer file-sharing service that revolutionized the music industry, is set to debut at South by Southwest.
Downloaded will have its world premiere on March 10 at the Texas festival, according to VH1, which financed the film. A panel including director Alex Winter (best known as Bill of Bill and Ted fame), as well as Napster co-founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, will follow the screening on March 12.
The film focuses on the birth of digital-media sharing, and charts Napster's tumultuous journey from its founding in 1998 to its acquisition by online music store Rhapsody in 2011. It also looks at how the service paved the way for iTunes, Spotify and other online music services.
"After more than a decade of declining sales of recorded music and imperfect attempts to present a licensed alternative, the influence of Napster continues to be felt," according to a SXSW description of the service.
Fanning and Parker teamed up again in 2012 to launch Airtime, a social video network that's reportedly suffering from a stagnant user base.
Parker, a major investor in Spotify, recently shared the stage with Metallica's Lars Ulrich, who famously spoke out against Napster. The two parties have an acrimonious history, with Ulrich filing a copyright-infringement lawsuit against Napster in 2000. The drummer also testified in front of the U.S. Congress, condemning online file-sharing at large. (Interestingly, Metallica has now put its entire catalog on Spotify.)
Do you plan to watch Downloaded? Tell us in the comments below.
Image courtesy of Facebook, Downloaded the Movie
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