Napster
Every song in the world, free, right now
Napster was the P2P file-sharing service that made MP3 sharing a mass phenomenon, launched in June 1999 by 18-year-old Shawn Fanning. At its peak it had around 80 million registered users. Sued by the RIAA and Metallica, it was forced offline by court order on 11 July 2001, barely two years after launch.
Timeline
- 1999
-
June 1999
Launch
Napster released
P2P MP3 sharing app by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker.
-
7 December 1999
Legal
RIAA sues Napster
The record industry files suit for contributory copyright infringement.
- 2000
-
13 April 2000
Legal
Metallica sues Napster
The band files suit after an unreleased demo circulates; the case makes file sharing a mainstream story.
-
26 July 2000
Legal
Judge orders Napster shut down
Injunction by Judge Patel; stayed on appeal two days later.
-
31 October 2000
Funding
Bertelsmann alliance
The German media giant loans Napster $50 million to build a licensed service while litigation continues.
- 2001
-
February 2001
Peak
Peaks around 26.4 million users worldwide
Media Metrix measurement in February 2001, the month the appeals court ruling lands.
-
12 February 2001
Legal
Ninth Circuit upholds liability
Napster must remove copyrighted works from the network.
-
11 July 2001
Shutdown
Napster goes offline
Unable to comply with filtering requirements, the service shuts down.
- 2002
-
3 June 2002
Legal
Napster files for Chapter 11
A planned sale to Bertelsmann is blocked by the court; the company liquidates.
-
27 November 2002
Acquisition
Roxio buys the Napster brand in bankruptcy
The name is recycled for a legal download store.
- 2003
-
29 October 2003
Revival
Napster 2.0 launches as a paid store
Roxio relaunches the brand as a licensed music service.
How it looked
Ownership
Key figures
| Metric | Value | As of | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered accounts ▲ | 80 million | February 2001 | Reported Peak, around the time of the appeals ruling |
Confirmed official figures · Reported media, cites a source · Estimated analyst or our estimate
Why it shut down
Official line: Federal courts ordered Napster to stop the exchange of copyrighted material; unable to filter reliably, it took the service offline in July 2001.
Our analysis: Napster was killed by copyright law, not by users leaving. It proved the demand for digital music years before the industry was willing to sell it, and its 26 months of existence reshaped music distribution permanently.
History
26 months that changed music
Shawn Fanning wrote Napster in a dorm-room sprint and released it in June 1999. It indexed every user's MP3 folder into one searchable network, and suddenly every song ever recorded felt one click away. Nothing on the internet had grown that fast before: tens of millions of users within a year, university networks buckling under the traffic.
The lawsuits
The RIAA sued in December 1999, Metallica followed in 2000, and in July 2000 Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ordered the service shut down (an appeals court granted a stay two days later). The reprieve ended in 2001: ordered to filter all copyrighted material and unable to do so, Napster switched off its network on 11 July 2001 and filed for bankruptcy the next year. Roxio bought the name at the bankruptcy auction and reused it for a legal music store. The P2P wave it started rolled on through 
Kazaa and 
LimeWire, and the industry spent a decade fighting users before finally selling them what Napster gave away.
Similar projects
Sources
- Napster Unplugged NPR 27 July 2000 [archived]
- Napster Was Forced to Shut Down by Court Order 25 Years Ago Yahoo Entertainment 11 July 2026 [archived]
- Napster — Definition, History, & Facts Encyclopaedia Britannica [archived]
Last verified: 11 August 2026