Back in the year 2000, when the rest of the world for worrying about the Y2K bug, we were making the decision to get a broadband connection to enable us faster access to the worldwide web. A big driver of this decision was a new service we had discovered called Napster which enabled us to share music that we had purchased with our friends. More importantly it gave us access to a world of music we had never been exposed to. Imagine my delight then when at this year’s SXSW, the movie Downloaded was playing. Welcome to one of my favorite films of the SXSW 2013 Film festival.
Downloaded written and directed by Alex Winter (yes, that Alex Winter of Bill S Preston fame – Bill and Ted) focuses on the advent of digital media sharing, including the rise of game-changing company Napster and controversial pioneers Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. The digital revolution ultimately created a technology paradigm shift and upended the music industry. This great documentary has insights from well known music artists and figures within the music industry including: The Beastie Boys’ Mike D, Noel Gallagher, Henry Rollins, former Sony Music Chairman, Don Ienner, former record producer and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell and Hilary Rosen, former CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Alex Winter masterfully documents an account of a time and events that in my mind changed history. More importantly he has shared the profile of a young Sean Fanning who has previously been portrayed as an anarchist as a thoughtful and rather lonely young boy who just wanted to push and understand the boundaries of the technology of the time. In addition, we see a very different Sean Parker to the one portrayed in last years hit The Social Network. What particularly resonated with me through the entire movie was the story of the genius young minds behind Napster and what motivated them and it’s not always what you may think it was.
Watching a group of brilliant young minds come together and create something that not only changed the public perception of what they were willing to pay for and which ultimately brought the music industry as it had been for years to it’s knees but also how these young men defend themselves against corporations is fascinating. This is a David vs. Goliath story that is definitely worth a watch.
The biggest treat for me came during the Q and A after the movie when we got to meet Alex, Winter and both the Seans in person. The interaction between the three and especially the Seans just solidified how brilliantly Winter had captured the essence of these incredibly talented young men. If you have any interest in music, entrepreneurialism, dot com or milestones in history, this is a must see documentary
