Downloaded - The Movie - Azure Hills Music

Downloaded – The Movie directed by Alex Winter. There’s no time like when you’re down with a bug to catch up on movies and shows piling up on the DVR. I recorded several concerts and music-related movies over the last few months but have limited time to watch them. With the onset of a sore throat that manifested into a cold, sinus headache, etc., I’ve been making a dent the last few nights.

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A film directed by Alex Winter

One of the movies I watched was a documentary called Downloaded, directed and produced by Alex Winter. While the reviews have been mixed, where you’re coming from, and your interests can sway your thoughts on this one. As someone interested in music, the evolution of music consumption, and new rules of obedience stemming from new technologies, I found it easy to get involved in this story. This film was released in 2013, following a teaser shown the prior year at SXSW.

Synopsis of the story

The core focus of the Alex Winter-directed film Downloaded is the story of Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker and their technology baby, Napster. There’s a lot under the hood of this movie. Intelligent teens become consumed with pursuing their coding adventure up to the point that dropping out of college seems a necessity. We have a new model of music acquisition thrust upon millions of people along with ensuing moral questions facing both the listeners of newly acquired mass volumes of mp3 files and the cash-cow music industry and its legions of artists tied to its contracts and business workings. For those interested in the workings of legal systems, that’s here too.

The Downloading Age of Music

Honestly, I can’t really recall if back in the day of Napster if I ever downloaded any tracks or not. I do remember accessing the interface at one point to peak around, but being a fairly risk averse personality, I was likely more of a looky-loo than someone scrambling around in the technology sea of music piracy. Fast forward to 2016, my paid streaming service of choice for well over a decade (Rhapsody) today goes by a new name and a new logo – Napster. But today’s Napster is legit – a pay model where listeners pay a fee for access (and I am more than happy to do so), and where artists get royalty payments (though probably not in the amounts desired).

Staying on this digression, I can’t say enough good things about today’s Napster. With an instance of the app ever present on my iPhone and iPad, access to music exploration is always just a press and swipe of a finger away. Via the phone, a connection to Bluetooth streams the music on my car stereo, where I’m constantly sampling new releases. This is my way of checking out music to pass the test of “Will I buy it or not?” I do enjoy the quick access to music files this way.

However, I relish soaking up music presented as close as possible to the best definition available, which isn’t streaming MP3s. So monthly, there’s always a list of albums I’ll seek out either in vinyl if available on the large black discs, hi-res downloads if 24-bit options are available from HD Tracks or the like, or, worst case scenario, an actual aluminum compact disc.

Synopsis of the plot

But where were we? Oh yes, the movie. So a synopsis of the plot from Wikipedia goes like this:

This documentary film addresses the evolution of digital media sharing on the Internet. It features exclusive interviews with software developers and musicians about controversial filesharing software, and particularly Napster.^[8] It follows Napster from its rise in 1999, through the swarm of lawsuits that ensued and to its acquisition by Rhapsody in 2011. Some of those interviewed include Henry Rollins, Billy Corgan, former record producer and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, former Sony Music Chairman Don Ienner, former CEO of the RIAA Hilary Rosen, Beastie Boys’ Mike D, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and Noel Gallagher.