All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster

by Joseph Menn

At age seventeen, Shawn Fanning designed a computer program that transformed the Internet into an unlimited library of free music. Tens of millions of young people quickly signed on, Time magazine put Fanning on its cover, and his company, Napster, became a household name. It did not take long for the music industry to declare war, one that has now engulfed the biggest entertainment and technology companies on the planet.

For All the Rave , top cyberculture journalist Joseph Menn gained unprecedented access to Fanning, other key Napster and music executives, reams of internal e-mails, unpublished court records, and other resources. The result is the definitive account of the Napster saga, for the first time revealing secret take-over and settlement talks, the unseen role of Shawn’s uncle in controlling Napster, and hidden agendas and infighting from Napster’s trenches to the top ranks of the German media giant Bertelsmann.

All the Rave is a riveting account of genius and greed, visionary leaps and disastrous business decisions, and the clash of the hacker and investor cultures with that of the copyright establishment. Napster left a generation of music fans feeling that paying the recording industry close to twenty dollars for a CD was a foolish and unnecessary extravagance, which provoked a still-growing backlash against digital media consumers that might leave them with less control than ever. Here is the inside story of the young visionary and the company that made it happen.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Technology, Audiobook, Business, Journalism

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Joseph Menn’s fourth book, "Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World," was published in June 2019 by PublicAffairs and in paperback in June 2020. It tells the story of the oldest, most respected and most famous American hacking group of all time. Its members invented the concept of hacktivism, released both the top tool for cracking passwords and the reigning technique for controlling computers from afar, and spurred development of Edward Snowden’s anonymity tool of choice. With its origins in the earliest days of the Internet, the cDc is full of oddball characters-activists, artists, and musicians-who are now woven into the top ranks of the American establishment.
Hudson Booksellers named "Cult of the Dead Cow" one of the 10 best nonfiction books of the year, and the Wall Street Journal called it one of the five cybersecurity books everyone should read. The New York Times Book Review called it "an invaluable resource...The tale of this small but influential group is a hugely important piece of the puzzle for anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping the internet age.”
Menn's "Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet," was published in 2010. Part true-life thriller and part expose, it became an immediate bestseller, with Menn interviewed on national television and radio programs in the US, Canada and elsewhere. Menn has spoken at major security conferences on his findings, which include hard evidence that the governments of Russia and China are protecting and directing the behavior of some of the world’s worst cyber-criminals.
“Fatal System Error accurately reveals the secretive global cyber cartels and their hidden multibillion-dollar business, proving cybercrime does pay and pays well,” said Richard A. Clarke, special advisor to President George W. Bush for cyber security and author of Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror. The New Yorker magazine said it was “riveted” by the tale, comparing it to the novels of Stieg Larsson.
Menn is an investigative reporter on cybersecurity at Reuters and formerly worked at the Financial Times and the Los Angeles Times, He is a three-time finalist for the Loeb Award, the most prestigious in financial journalism, and a ghree-time winner of a "Best in Business" award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
His previous books include "All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster," the definitive 2003 work selected as a book-of-the-year finalist by the trade group Investigative Reporters & Editors Inc. All the Rave reversed the conventional wisdom on what had been the most exhaustively covered start-up of the era. The New York Times wrote that All the Rave "provides a well-documented history of one of the most celebrated collapses of the Internet. But it goes far deeper, giving an inside account of the creation of Napster, the battle for its control and the maneuvering by big Silicon Valley names to try to turn music piracy into gold."

Menn is also co-author of The People vs. Big Tobacco: How the States Took on the Cigarette Giants (1998) and a principal editor of The Chronology: The Documented Day-by-Day Account of the Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Contras (1987). He was taught advanced technology and business writing at the University of California at Berkeley’s graduate school of journalism and lectured at other universities and conferences.

Menn began his professional career at The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. He grew up in the Boston area and graduated with honors from Harvard College, where he was executive editor of The Harvard Crimson.

Reviews

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Napster is fascinating. The beginning of this book is also fascinating, and it sets up a story that seems like its going to be really good. There are a bunch of young kids doing something neat that is clearly going to get them in a lot of trouble, a conniving older relative dead set on strip mining their idea for financial gain, and a long cast of ne'er do wells and incompetents jumping on the bandwagon. It sets up Silicon Valley during the 1990s bubble very convincingly and compellingly. Then the narrative gets bogged down in lawsuits, financial maneuvering, and thankless minutiae. I guess this progression is actually a pretty fair representation of Napster itself, but I had extracted all the joy i was going to get from this book by about halfway through.

[Deepika Ghodki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being a software engineer (and an active consumer of the Internet :P), the word Napster has popped up several times in my circle. But it wasn’t until this name came up again in a software course at school, that I got interested to actually look it up. A quick google search led me to the Audible version of this book. All about Rave - an investigative book written on the journey of the world’s first peer to peer file sharing system. As a student of Distributed Systems, I was really excited to know how this technology took shape that changed the way music was distributed and also the way people perceived tech.

It’s astounding to discover that this service consumed by millions of users was all but a pet project of a 19 year old hobbyist hacker. The books begins with introducing Shawn, how he came to start a music sharing system, and how he was joined by strangers who he met in a mere chatroom. The book also spends quite a lot of time on Shawn’s uncle who according to the author was the puppeteer who led Napster to its doom. In a span of 2 years Napster rose to fame without a business model. Its content kept increasing, so did its users. In that short span, it went through numerous ups and downs, that eventually led to its end in a big legal battle.

While reading, you would be forced to question their actions? A bunch of music enthusiasts who were passionate to share it using technology and no intent to monetize it. Is that so bad? But as you read you realize, while sharing files among peers may not seem like such a big deal now, but in that day and age music was not so cheap to get. The only way to get music was to buy a CD of the album (even if all you wanted was a single song). In other words, music was a more precious commodity. What Napster did was make it readily available. This totally ruined the profit model of the music industry. And, also it was copyright infringement (aka illegal). The denial (or concealment) of this fact is what forced Napster to shut down. Even though we establish it was wrong to share music for free, you can’t help but appreciate the support it got from its users throughout the legal issues. It's also cool to see that such a small company was able to create ripples through the entire music industry.

Despite this rollercoaster story, why did I rate is so less?

I started with 10x enthusiasm, but as I listened on the interest kept dying down. It felt like too much information, characters were getting introduced with every passing chapter so much so that I started to lose track. The author took a lot of time in painting the background of each character, which seemed unnecessary. I was waiting for the story to go back to Napster. It wouldn’t be fair to blame the book entirely though, I think an audio book was probably not the ideal choice, as I did not have the flexibility to flip back and check something again. Towards the end I got so impatient that I just want to finish it quickly. That was not very entertaining.

In conclusion, the original Napster lived for just about 2 years, but it left behind a legacy so big that we are reading about it school now. I’d say that’s pretty cool, won’t you?

You may not find any other text about Napster more detailed than this, and I guess that’s what makes it a little worth it to read.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Altough I am deeply engrossed in the subject and have a fair amounth of prior knowledge in the matters of intellectual property, this book had a hard time engaging me. At points its narrative got confusing, and I lost sight of what certain players where doing at pivotal moments. Shawn Fanning's story melds with the story of his several business partners, which wouldn't be so bad if the title didn't spell out so clearly that the biography is as much about Napters as it is about Shawn himself. Even less attention is paid to Sean Parker, who we hear so very little about. The focus is basically on John Fanning, the uncle who fancied himself a bigshot entrepreneur and who had a fair amount of responsibility in Napster's demise.

The overarching tale does much better than the smaller plots, and you get to understand more about the inner workings of the internet bubble, and how greed drove impossible bets forward. It's not the book it should be, but anyway, it's still the best resource available on Napster and it shouldn't be dismissed.

[Travis Murdock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good look behind the scenes of Napster. The extensive interviews with many of the founders and employees helped to document this incredible idea.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good account of the whole Napster phenomenon from the inside. A good read that deserves a place on the shelf beside The Accidental Billionaires.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts out super strong and interesting with how Napster was formed, and then it gets very dry and all about business/legal agreements.

[Carson Knauff · Rating 2 out of 5]

How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt is my favorite book of all time. This book always came up as a suggestion of what to read if you like that book. The major difference is that book is amazing and this book was excruciating to read. Written in 2003 it has no insight to where Napster led the music industry. It is simply a string of facts written more sterile than a Wikipedia article. It is so interested in Silicon Valley and business moves but it can’t do anything but describe people and past employments. Has almost nothing redeeming about it.

[Alexandre Cavalcante · Rating 3 out of 5]

My main goal when I decided to read this book was to get to know more about Shaw Fanning's life and Napter's first days as a team. However, the book spends more time narrating everything that occurred in the lawsuits and the laws they infringed. If you read The Accidental Billionaires and you are expecting a similar narrative, forget it. You better watch the documentary 'Downloaded'.

[Shtluck · Rating 3 out of 5]

An in-depth, behind the scenes look at an watershed moment in history. Later half of the book spends too much time going over the details of stocks, but overall the book provides the finer details not found in the headlines of the time.

[in8 · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://5cense.com/22/988.htm

[Michael Pack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this as it had lots of interesting behind the scenes stuff about this early music service.

[Joseph Menn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive inside account of the file-sharing revolution that overthrew the music industry, "All the Rave" reveals the family betrayal, greed and mismanagement that hijacked one the most fundamental innovations of the Internet era.

Named one of the three best books of 2003 by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., "All the Rave" has been out of print until now and unavailable in most electronic formats.

Author and veteran technology journalist Joseph Menn also wrote 2010's "Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords who are Bringing Down the Internet."

Reviews for "All the Rave":

"The book, by Joseph Menn, provides a well-documented history of one of the most celebrated collapses of the Internet. But it goes far deeper, giving an inside account of the creation of Napster, the battle for its control and the maneuvering by big Silicon Valley names to try to turn music piracy into gold." -- The New York Times

"That rare business book that nicely avoids either hatchet job or hagiography." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"An admirable piece of reporting, of interest to both friends and foes of the movement Napster helped to create." -- The Washington Post

"Menn's revelations are startling...the best seat yet to the online music revolution." -- Newsweek

"An engrossing and utterly coruscating history of the original Napster that deserves to be ranked as one of the two great books written about the dot-com bubble, alongside Michael Wolf's Burn Rate." -- The Register

At age seventeen, Shawn Fanning designed a computer program that transformed the Internet into an unlimited library of free music. Future Facebook President Sean Parker, to be immortalized in "The Social Network" a decade later, joined him as a co-founder of Napster Inc.

Tens of millions of young people quickly signed on, Time magazine put Fanning on its cover, and Napster became a household name.
It did not take long for the music industry to declare war, one that would engulfed the biggest entertainment and technology companies on the planet.

Despite the mass media coverage that came with the revolution and Fanning's status as the first widely admired hacker, no one outside the firm grasped who owned the company or what its real strategy was.

The full tale, revealed only here, shows that the venture money credited with spreading Internet technology worldwide also corrupted its evolution, triggering a backlash that is still reverberating ten years later.

For "All the Rave," Joseph Menn gained unprecedented access to Fanning, Parker, other key Napster and music executives, reams of internal emails, unpublished court records, and other resources.

The result is the definitive account of the Napster saga, for the first time disclosing secret takeover and settlement talks, the unseen role of Shawn’s uncle in controlling Napster, and hidden agendas and infighting from Napster’s trenches to the top ranks of the German media giant Bertelsmann.

Spiced with sex, drugs and rock and roll, "All the Rave" is a riveting account of genius and greed, visionary leaps and disastrous business decisions, and the clash of the hacker and investor cultures with that of the copyright establishment.

[Tim Jin · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading about Napster and Shawn Fanning, the company seem like a digital Ponzi scheme. I'm a child from the Napster era and "All the Rave" was a decent read, but the actual company and leadership was a big joke. Terrible management.

I don't feel bad for Shawn Fanning. He might had been a good coder, but no leadership and you never do business with family. John Fanning, his uncle, was the reason for Napster failures. Maybe if Shawn's uncle wasn't apart of the company, Napster would still be here.

They pretty much destroy themselves. The company just sounded shady from the start.

Even after the death of Napster, any savvy user could easily find these files elsewhere.

Thank you Napster for bringing the technology of "sharing" to the Internet.

[Zweegas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Napster was of course a major revolutionary force in modern civilization, a huge cultural phenomenon that changed the world so much, but this book doesn't fully explore the cultural phenomenon aspect. Instead, this book is focused on the inside story and therefore it turns out to be more like a low-budget Barbarians At The Gate -- all about the business side of things and internal company struggles and fending off legal actions, etc.

Just the fact that anyone ever tried to run Napster as a for-profit business in the first place is hilarious.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greed. Greed. Greed. And crazy greed. Napster was a real game-changer so it's interesting to read about its formation and ultimate demise. Interesting to find out that the Fanning that was in charge wasn't the one we all knew and loved (admired, derided, and villified).

Good read. Would recommend.

[Skyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Much of Napster's wild trajectory can be traced to that early division of power, between a young hacker who wanted to see if he could solve an interesting problem, and an uncle who recklessly aspired to riches."

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great behind the scenes look at why Napster closed down.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, it's an interesting story, but the book included more details than the average reader probably wants.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary: A potentially interesting story told in a dry and problematic way.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Shawn Fanning's creation of the program that would become Napster and the disastrous company formed around it. From the beginning, Shawn's huckster uncle assured himself a large stake in the company. His subsequent mismanagement made it even harder for the company to deal with technical and legal challenges. This account reveals the private, internal power struggles that accompanied the very public legal battle between Napster and the music industry.

I found the concept of this story much more interesting than the execution. One problem was the sheer number of characters to keep track of. A character list would have been extremely helpful, since the author frequently didn't do enough to help me remember who everyone was. The biggest problem, though, was the writing. There was a lot of interpersonal drama, but I didn't feel invested in it or curious about the outcome. I've read several books that describe court cases in engaging ways (Love Wins,  Then Comes Marriage ), but this was not one of them. I think more detail and more suspenseful writing would have helped. This was true of the technical challenges as well.

There were also a few character descriptions that struck me problematic. The first Napster CEO was a woman and I definitely think the contributed to the criticisms other people had of her performance in that role. I could wouldn't blame the author for this if those descriptions were exclusively in quotes from the characters, but the author also describes her as both motherly and overly emotional. The narrator descriptions of some of the male characters also seemed more negative than the character quotes warranted. And his first example of weird people at the Napster office was to mention that some were transgender.

This could have been a great story. The true events had all the ingredients necessary for that to happen. Unfortunately, the writing was not engaging. It was also sometimes problematic in terms of both gender representation and author impartiality. It was a detailed account of the Napster story with lots of insider accounts, but I'd only recommend it if that topic really grabs you.

 This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey