Audiogalaxy

Audiogalaxy started as an FTP index in 1998 and became the place Napster users went in 2001. Its Satellite client kept searching in the background and resumed downloads by itself, which felt like magic at the time. In June 2002 it settled with the RIAA and installed a filter that only allowed music with explicit permission, and the network went quiet within days.

Timeline [edit]

1998

1998 Launch

The Borg Search goes online

Michael Merhej builds an FTP index that becomes Audiogalaxy.

2001

July 2001 Peak

Napster falls and the traffic arrives

Audiogalaxy becomes one of the main destinations for displaced Napster users.

2002

24 May 2002 Legal

The RIAA sues

The complaint follows months of blocked songs reappearing under misspelled artist names.

17 June 2002 Shutdown announced

Settlement and filter

Only music with explicit rights-holder consent may be shared. The network empties.

2010

2010 Revival

Audiogalaxy returns as a streaming locker

The name comes back on a service that streams your own library to your phone.

2013

31 January 2013 Shutdown

Operations cease

After the Dropbox acquisition the service closes for good.

Key figures [edit]

Metric	Value	As of	Confidence
Registered accounts ▲	30 million	2002	Estimated Reported registered users at the height of the post-Napster surge

Confirmed official figures · Reported media, cites a source · Estimated analyst or our estimate

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: The RIAA sued on 24 May 2002. Audiogalaxy settled on 17 June 2002 and agreed to a filter that allowed sharing only with the explicit consent of the rights holder, which emptied the network. The company itself ceased operations on 31 January 2013.

Our analysis: Audiogalaxy did not lose in court and was never shut down by an order. It agreed to a permission-first filter, which for a catalogue built by users meant almost nothing was permitted. The settlement was technically survivable and practically fatal.

History [edit]

The Borg Search

Michael Merhej built the thing in 1998 as an index of FTP sites called The Borg Search. What grew out of it was unusual: a web-based search engine paired with a small background client called Audiogalaxy Satellite. You searched in a browser, clicked, and the Satellite fetched the file whenever a source appeared, resuming by itself if the transfer broke.

For anyone used to sitting and watching a Napster download fail at 94 percent, that was a genuine advance. When Napster was shut down in 2001, Audiogalaxy inherited a great deal of its traffic, and its per-artist forums turned it into something closer to a community than a search box.

The filter

Audiogalaxy did try to cooperate. It blocked specific copyrighted songs on request. Users routed around it immediately, reuploading a blocked Pink Floyd track credited to "Pink Lloyd" so that the block never matched. In May 2001 a groups feature made it worse, letting members push songs to everyone in a group at once.

The RIAA sued on 24 May 2002. The settlement came three weeks later, on 17 June, and its central term was a reversal of the burden: instead of blocking what rights holders objected to, Audiogalaxy could only allow what rights holders had explicitly permitted. For a library assembled entirely by its users, that meant almost nothing could be shared.

Two more lives

The name survived twice. From mid 2002 it was a shopfront for the Rhapsody subscription service. From 2010 it came back as something genuinely interesting, a place-shifting service that streamed your own music collection from your own computer to your phone before that was a normal thing to want.

Dropbox acquired the team, and Audiogalaxy ceased operations for good on 31 January 2013.

Last verified: 13 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).

Timeline [edit]

The site through time

Ownership [edit]