Sean Parker: Spotify US is realisation of my Napster dream

Sean Parker, co-founder of the original Napster, the pioneering file-sharing service, says the launch of Spotify in the US “represents the realisation of a dream”.

Spotify, the much-hyped European music service, brought Mr Parker – now at Founders Fund, a venture firm – onto its board as an investor in 2010, when it began to realise that convincing the US record labels was going to be tougher than it expected.

Mr Parker clearly sees Spotify as the heir apparent of Napster, which although still alive in name, was closed in its original form in 2001 after an RIAA lawsuit.

“For a decade I have waited for a music service that could rekindle my excitement about music by enabling music to be shared freely across the world – all the while empowering artists to reap the economic benefits of selling their music,” Mr Parker wrote on his Facebook wall on Thursday.

He said he hoped that Spotify would help to reverse the music industry’s “downward trend” since Napster and mark “the beginning of a return to growth by the recorded music business”.

“Spotify promises to get people excited about music again, and the result will be a new golden age of music – more people discovering and listening to more music than ever before. Spotify is removing the barriers to sharing music with friends so that music can move freely and find its fans organically. In this hyper-efficient system great music will find its natural audience. This means that more artists will find success, more fans will discover them, and artists will make more money selling their music than they thought possible. The rusty gears of the record business will turn again.”

Mr Parker also extolled the virtues of Spotify’s integration with social networks. Rumours have suggested that Spotify and Facebook – where he was founding president – could soon forge deeper ties.

“Since Spotify takes music viral, listening to music online is finally going to be a social experience. (Just like it’s always been offline.) And by making music social the experience of discovering and listening to new music will be more fun than ever before.”

Sean Parker, co-founder of the original Napster, the pioneering file-sharing service, says the launch of Spotify in the US “represents the realisation of a dream”.
Spotify, the much-hyped European music service, brought Mr Parker – now at Founders Fund, a venture firm – onto its board as an investor in 2010, when it began to realise that convincing the US record labels was going to be tougher than it expected.
Mr Parker clearly sees Spotify as the heir apparent of Napster, which although still alive in name, was closed in its original form after an RIAA lawsuit in 2001.
“For a decade I have waited for a music service that could rekindle my excitement about music by enabling music to be shared freely across the world – all the while empowering artists to reap the economic benefits of selling their music,” Mr Parker wrote on his Facebook wall on Thursday.
He said he hoped that Spotify would help to reverse the music industry’s “downward trend” since Napster and mark “the beginning of a return to growth by the recorded music business”.
“Spotify promises to get people excited about music again, and the result will be a new golden age of music – more people discovering and listening to more music than ever before. Spotify is removing the barriers to sharing music with friends so that music can move freely and find its fans organically. In this hyper-efficient system great music will find its natural audience. This means that more artists will find success, more fans will discover them, and artists will make more money selling their music than they thought possible. The rusty gears of the record business will turn again.”
Mr Parker also hinted at the rumoured expansion of Spotify’s integration with Facebook, where he was the founding president.
“Since Spotify takes music viral, listening to music online is finally going to be a social experience. (Just like it’s always been offline.) And by making music social the experience of discovering and listening to new music will be more fun than ever before.”
Sean Parker says Spotify’s US launch is realisation of original Napster’s dream

Sean Parker, co-founder of the original Napster, the pioneering file-sharing service, says the launch of Spotify in the US “represents the realisation of a dream”.

Spotify, the much-hyped European music service, brought Mr Parker – now at Founders Fund, a venture firm – onto its board as an investor in 2010, when it began to realise that convincing the US record labels was going to be tougher than it expected.

Mr Parker clearly sees Spotify as the heir apparent of Napster, which although still alive in name, was closed in its original form after an RIAA lawsuit in 2001.

“For a decade I have waited for a music service that could rekindle my excitement about music by enabling music to be shared freely across the world – all the while empowering artists to reap the economic benefits of selling their music,” Mr Parker wrote on his Facebook wall on Thursday.

He said he hoped that Spotify would help to reverse the music industry’s “downward trend” since Napster and mark “the beginning of a return to growth by the recorded music business”.

“Spotify promises to get people excited about music again, and the result will be a new golden age of music – more people discovering and listening to more music than ever before. Spotify is removing the barriers to sharing music with friends so that music can move freely and find its fans organically. In this hyper-efficient system great music will find its natural audience. This means that more artists will find success, more fans will discover them, and artists will make more money selling their music than they thought possible. The rusty gears of the record business will turn again.”

Mr Parker also hinted at the rumoured expansion of Spotify’s integration with Facebook, where he was the founding president.

“Since Spotify takes music viral, listening to music online is finally going to be a social experience. (Just like it’s always been offline.) And by making music social the experience of discovering and listening to new music will be more fun than ever before.”