1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,680 History is littered with examples of dominant forces that later fell by the wayside. 2 00:00:04,680 --> 00:00:07,840 The Roman Empire, Disco Music, Dallas Cowboys, 3 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:11,560 and so it is in the tech world, which is why we created the first episode 4 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:16,240 of our something part series, Where Are They Now? 5 00:00:16,240 --> 00:00:20,640 To kick things off, we're gonna look at some of the ways that we all used to enjoy digital media 6 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:27,000 before Spotify and YouTube came along, starting with the venerable real player from real networks. 7 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,720 If you grew up in the 90s, you probably used real player at some point, 8 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,880 whether it was to listen to music or watch a video clip, 9 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:37,520 as it was one of the very first streaming applications 10 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:42,000 to gain widespread popularity. In fact, the first ever sporting event 11 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,600 streamed live online was over real audio back in 1995. 12 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:52,000 Of course, the real in real audio probably oversold the player's capabilities. 13 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,000 During real player zenith in the late 1990s and early 2000s, 14 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,280 most people were running painfully slow dial-up connections, 15 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:03,360 which meant that their streams were often fairly low quality, 16 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:08,960 assuming they worked at all. And real player was notorious for being a clunky, 17 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:12,840 error-prone program that was jam-packed full of advertising. 18 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,400 But it was still a piece of tech that most people tolerated 19 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,960 because few other programs delivered streaming media. 20 00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:24,160 That is, until Microsoft and Apple started providing their own streaming software 21 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:29,760 in their consumer operating systems and also made streaming software freely available 22 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,960 for administrators who previously had been forced 23 00:01:32,960 --> 00:01:37,360 to pay real networks to get this functionality on the servers for their websites. 24 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:43,680 And then as time went on, standards like Adobe Flash made the clunky real player more and more irrelevant. 25 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:47,560 But believe it or not, real player is actually still around today 26 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:52,480 as a general purpose media player supported by ads and subscription fees. 27 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,720 Even if the general consensus is that other media players 28 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:59,800 like VLC accomplished the same tasks in a simpler package. 29 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:03,800 Bottom line, I don't see real player making a big comeback anytime soon. 30 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:08,320 Next up, Winamp, which was a more general purpose music player 31 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:13,640 than real player. Debuting in 1997, it quickly caught on with PC users 32 00:02:13,640 --> 00:02:16,640 around the globe and eventually boasted a user base 33 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:20,280 of around 90 million. Right out of the gate, 34 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:25,080 people loved its resource-late operation, its incredible customizability. 35 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:29,400 Guys, Winamp's skins were big way before CSGO ones. 36 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:34,360 And it's ease of use. All you had to do to build a playlist was select 37 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:38,640 and drag some MP3s into Winamp and boom, you could be your own personal DJ. 38 00:02:38,640 --> 00:02:42,640 It was a really cool idea at the time. Unsurprisingly, Winamp's demise 39 00:02:42,640 --> 00:02:47,640 was largely the work of bigger companies. AOL bought Winamp in 1999 40 00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:51,320 and used it as a vehicle for expanding its own internet service 41 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:55,680 by asking users to sign up for AOL whenever they tried to install Winamp. 42 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:59,720 Despite the fact that AOL's parent company could have just made money 43 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:04,880 by offering their huge music library to Winamp users instead. 44 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:09,480 What an idea. And since many Winamp users were music enthusiasts 45 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:15,120 and power users who cared about audio quality and the overall listening experience, 46 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:18,600 the integrated AOL ads and the fact that their beloved player 47 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:25,400 had been taken over by a company known for a sandboxed internet service was pretty off-putting. 48 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:31,280 Combined with the iPods release in 2001, which required rival program iTunes to function, 49 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:34,560 Winamp was never able to fully realize its potential. 50 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,800 Though its user base actually kept growing until 2007 51 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,080 thanks to its popularity with users outside of the US 52 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:46,000 where it was developed. Winamp was eventually sold to a Belgian company 53 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:51,140 and an updated beta appeared in 2016 with another update in 2018. 54 00:03:51,140 --> 00:03:55,820 A new version is actually expected sometime this year, but the many years of neglect combined 55 00:03:55,820 --> 00:04:00,960 with the popularity of modern streaming audio services means that while Winamp still has 56 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:06,200 about 30 million users worldwide, it's unlikely to recapture its past glory. 57 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:09,640 Finally, there's possibly the most infamous of them all, 58 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:13,120 Napster, a file sharing service that quickly became known 59 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:18,680 as a hotbed for music piracy. The basic idea behind Napster was that it allowed users 60 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:25,560 to directly download music from the computers of other users, suddenly giving the public access 61 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:30,360 to tons of free music, including hard to find tracks. 62 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:36,600 So all you needed to do to be the cool kid in class was to know how to use Napster and have a CD burner. 63 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,880 Of course, the record companies sued Napster and won 64 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:44,800 because the courts found that while Napster wasn't providing the music itself, 65 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:50,240 it was aware that copyright infringement was going on on its network and had the ability 66 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:56,200 to stop it, but failed to do so. This differs from torrent applications like Qubit Torrent, 67 00:04:56,200 --> 00:05:00,720 which only allow users to connect to any of thousands 68 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:05,560 of servers that provide tracker files. It's a much less centralized approach 69 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:10,720 and a more difficult target. After the original Napster was forced to shut down, 70 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:15,560 the Napster logo and brand actually lived on. They were purchased and have since changed hands 71 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,680 a few times with each subsequent owner attempting 72 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:24,560 to capitalize on Napster's name recognition to sell licensed music, both on a per song basis 73 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:28,920 and through a subscription model. Napster was eventually bought by Rhapsody 74 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:33,200 and actually still exists today as a streaming music service with a monthly fee 75 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:37,300 similar to Apple Music. So I guess it goes to show you guys, 76 00:05:37,300 --> 00:05:40,600 if Napster can go legit, anyone can. 77 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,800 Okay, fair point, except you guys. 78 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:49,980 So thanks for watching guys. Like, check out our other videos, subscribe, 79 00:05:49,980 --> 00:05:55,720 and I will see you next time. I won't see you, I can't see you, it's a camera lens.