Rapstation Swapmeet

Rapstation believes in file sharing. You'll find in Rapstation Swapmeet news and tools to help you share and manage your music, video, and other digital files. Are you ready to break out of the Matrix? Check out the real deal.

The new Dave Mathews CD tops the charts in it's first week, making it the biggest debut for an album so far in 2001. And "I did It" has been freely available on Napster for almost a month: Explain that RIAA!
As a featured track on the home button of the Napster application, the single "I Did It" must have gotten a bajillion downloads, yet it still performed as expected on the market, topping charts at over 750,000 sales!

January 22 - Court: Napster must eliminate copyright files
By Tamara Conniff and Brooks Boliek

LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Napster received its marching orders Tuesday when a federal judge ordered it to take down all music files identified by the record labels as being protected under copyright laws.
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There is a chilling moment in the movie Poltergeist, when the little girl turns away from the TV set and says in a small, mysterious voice: "They're here." Since the advent of MP3, Hollywood and the TV industry have been waiting in fear for a similar moment when the soldier ant hackers out there finally work out how to do a Napster on them. Well "They're Here!" -maybe. In the US, the merry boys and girls who dedicate their lives to using the web to screw up conventional media economics have been working on something called DiVX, a modified form of Microsoft's MPEG4. This produces at least VHS quality pictures that can be compressed and downloaded to a CD or held on a hard disk.
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File-sharing app developer Aimster hopes to increase its user base with new plug-ins that support instant messaging services from Microsoft and Yahoo...

In its first B2B deal, online music company Streamwaves.com will provide the back-end of a planned streaming music subscription service from Uplister. Uplister, which develops music playlist sharing technology, plans to launch a subscription service in the first half of 2001. The service will cost an undetermined monthly fee. Uplister's current service lets users create and share playlists, but the company currently does not offer any music. Last month, Streamwaves licensed EMI Recorded Music's catalog for use as part of B2B services and its own music subscription service. Streamwaves wants to secure licensing deals with the four remaining major label groups. Uplister launched in September.

MP3.com is charging heavy users of its relaunched streaming music service. My.MP3.com made the company the subject of music industry lawsuits earlier this year. The service was free in its initial launch last spring, but music licenses cost the company at least $160 million after a judge declared the service illegal in April following lawsuits filed by labels and publishers. Now fully licensed, the service carries a two-tiered pricing plan. For access to streaming versions of up to 25 CDs, the service is free. Access to between 26 and 500 CDs costs consumers a $50 annual fee. Only songs or CDs covered under MP3.com's licensing agreements can be used as part of the service. Users who opened an account last year before the service was shut down can access that account; any tracks in the existing account do not affect the total number of discs.

The first "official" version of the Napster software for Mac users has arrived! It acts like a Mac, feels like a Mac, and works like Napster. What could be better? It's loaded with cool items like a search history feature, which allows users to keep track of their last ten searches, full drag-and-drop capabilities and new Tool Bar Flavors to match the iMac colors. And you can call on Napster Customer Support if you run into any problems. Download it now!

Nile Rodgers, President of Visiosonic Music and one of the world's premier record producers, announced the launch of MP3DanceClub.com on November 22nd.

The site will focus on underground dance club artists, and set itself up to be a "groundbreaking music distribution model" for this genre of music to standard retail music channels.
How do they plan on promoting these artists? MP3 Dance Club will be producing special "Enhanced CD's" borrowing on technology from Visiosonic's PCDJ software. These enhanced CD's will play on standard CD players, and pack in MP3 versions of each track along with the DCDJ software to customize the playback of these MP3's.
MP3 Dance Club is now in the Alpha test phase with Compact Disk World and should retail for around $9.98 a CD.

From Testimony of Shawn Fanning
Founder, Napster, Inc.
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee

"Today the Napster community numbers over thirty-two million; for the past four months, it has been growing at the rate of one million new users each week. There are consistently over 800,000 people using the system simultaneously, limited only by our network resources. Napster users are in all corners of the world, and while I think it was initially adopted mostly by college students, a significant portion of our users are now over 30 (we received email just last Friday from one 91 year-old man)."

"An underlying assumption of the technology and the service is that people determine entirely for themselves how they are going to use the system and participate in the community - Napster provides the tools, but has no ability to impose limitations or exercise control. The music people are sharing and discussing ranges from the rock music you might expect to classical, opera, country, gospel, jazz, you name it. I receive thousands of emails personally and the company receives hundreds of thousands. People tell us that they use Napster to sample new music before deciding what to buy, find new artists, and house music in their computers that they already own on CD, cassette, vinyl and sometimes 8-track. We hear regularly from mothers who say they use Napster to screen the music their children are listening to and parents who say that Napster is a shared activity that helps them communicate with their teenagers."

"I am an avid music fan myself and it is important to me that Napster benefit artists. Many users have told us that using Napster has led them to buy more CDs. Napster has implemented a range of features, most notably our New Artist and Featured Music programs, that help users find out about new and emerging artists and help artists promote their music throughout the Napster community, making it possible for them to reach a broad audience. When Napster is able to implement a business model, there will be other benefits for artists as well, including payments to rightsholders"

Former PE frontman Chuck D, was in Great Britain advising investors on changes in the music industry. He was there as the guest of JP Morgan & Co. to advise their clients on the likelihood of success among the new dot-com companies and their impact on the music business in general. "I was over there giving my take on the digital revolution and how music is going to be distributed. The panel talked about the future of music and whether investors continue to keep their faith in the major record companies or do they spread the gospel -- and I'm hoping that they spread the gospel."

"Napster users are acting like kids in a candy store, grabbing as many MP3's as they can get their hands on."

More drama in the music biz as 26 States are taking the bold step of suing all 5 major record labels as well as several major record store chains. The reason being is that they are charging the labels with conspiracy to inflate and fix CD prices. The lawsuit lends credence to the reason why so many people have been going online to download free music from sites like Napster or Gnutella. People have long complained as to why the average price for a CD was anywhere from 15-20 dollars while the cost was less then a dollar. According to the lawsuit, the 5 majors have engaged in a practice of economic intimidation by pressuring and penalizing retailers who choose to sell CDs below a certain fixed priced. Representatives from the label claim they have done nothing wrong. I say sue the hell out of them and break their backs.. The money from this lawsuit if won will go to benefit music educational programs.. Ideally some ambitious lawyer will file a suit against the labels on behalf of the consumers. Expect this to be a drawn out battle..

Chuck D: This is the biggest enthusiasm to hit the music in 50 years and its ironic that the music business ... is fighting tooth and nail against it.

"It's really crazy, but I see a lot of people trying to hold onto something old," said the Rap musician Ice T, one of the artists in favor of letting Napster develop on its own. "Basically the major [studios] just want in on the Internet...they know what's up."

Blinded by the Light - TV coverage of Napster puts the players in the spotlight
By Julene Snyder

Crazy times, these. MTV's Kurt Loder has become the voice of the establishment. Chuck D's manager, Walter Leaphart, is defending file-sharing on CNN. Metallica attorney Howard King is even feistier than usual, and Napster's Shawn Fanning is getting more face-time on the tube than the entire cast of "Road Rules."...

Chuck builds with Columbia University students on the state of digital music and film.

Chuck D: I take an outspoken role on everything I think is progressive for art. And I think this is progressive for the art because the industry and corporations have dominated and monopolized the outlets for the art whether it be radio, television or even the skewing of the price factor.

"If Patel was the key judge at the last turn of the century, we'd still be relying on horses and buggies and trains to get around. Stopping the process of file sharing is like trying to control the rain."

"I was in the pub last night, and a guy asked me for a light for his cigarette. I suddenly realised that there was a demand here and money to be made, and so I agreed to light his cigarette for 10 pence, but I didn't actually give him a light, I sold him a license to burn his cigarette. My fire-license restricted him from giving the light to anybody else, after all, that fire was my property. He was drunk, and dismissing me as a loony, but accepted my fire (and by implication the license which governed its use) anyway. Of course in a matter of minutes I noticed a friend of his asking him for a light and to my outrage he gave his cigarette to his friend and pirated my fire! I was furious, I started to make my way over to that side of the bar but to my added horror his friend then started to light other people's cigarettes left, right, and center! Before long that whole side of the bar was enjoying MY fire without paying me anything. Enraged I went from person to person grabbing their cigarettes from their hands, throwing them to the ground, and stamping on them.

Strangely the door staff exhibited no respect for my property rights as they threw me out the door." -Ian Clarke

Chuck D Chuck D speaks the truth but does anyone what to hear it? Music fans sending over 70,000 emails to Senators Hatch and Leahy is no joke.....Chuck D and Rapstation are fans of the fans.

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the segment

(Courtesy CBS)

Chuck D appeared on MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews, debating the issue of free music with Hilary Rosen, President and CEO of Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA has filed lawsuits against Napster on behalf of the record companies. The RIAA won with MP3, what's next?

Hear how the record industry plans to take away your rights to music on the Internet.

View
the segment

(Courtesy MSNBC)

Jim Guerinot, personal manager for The Offspring, Social Distortion, Chris Cornell, and No Doubt, speaks about his personal view on Napster and how The Offspring supports Napster.

Check out the legal

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THE WORLD ACCORDING TO CHUCK D
from livedaily.com

The recent proliferation of file-swapping programs such as Napster and Gnutella have made getting-it-to-the-public cheaper--much cheaper than some artists are comfortable with. While some artists view the free trading of their music as copyright infringement, Chuck D sees the file-trading systems as the new radio, a shifting paradigm the industry is going to have to get a grip on.

"File sharing doesn't fit into the old template. By the year 2002, you're going to see a million artists and a million labels on the Internet and the old industry rules won't apply. People say big lawyers are going to take over the Internet. They can't find everybody. They're not gonna be able to sign everybody. People are gonna rebel and use this to rebel."

for more on Chuck D and Confrontation Camp check out http://www.livedaily.com/news/1392.html

Swapmeet Classics

Chuck D Vs. Lars Ulrich on PBS' The Charlie Rose Show

The Grand Prize Winner of Rapstation's Power to the People and the Beats Contest

The Contest Archive of all Power to the People and the Beats contestants

A letter from a Banned Napster User

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