A few prominent musicians are beginning to rally
around MP3-swapping company Napster, which faces a potentially
crippling series of lawsuits from the recording industry and some
artists.
Rapper Chuck D, who has long been one of the industry's most
outspoken proponents of MP3 music, said today that he is hosting a
song-writing contest on his Rapstation.com Web site, aimed
at highlighting how Napster can help musicians.
"We
want to draw attention to the positive aspects that Napster has to
offer artists," Chuck D said in a statement. "They need to realize
that they can benefit infinitely from what it has to offer."
The news comes a week after Napster said it would sponsor a free
tour by hard rock group Limp Bizkit. The tour is estimated to
cost around $1.8 million--a hefty price tag for a company that has
announced just $2 million in venture funding to date.
Napster, which allows thousands of Internet subscribers at a time
to link their computers and easily share hundreds of thousands of
copyrighted MP3 music files, has thrown the recording industry back
to the defensive at a time when it was beginning--if slowly--to move
pieces of its business online.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Napster
late last year, contending that its software allowed widespread
online piracy. In recent weeks, musicians Metallica and Dr. Dre have
filed their own suits
against the company and university students who use the software,
saying that swapping their works without pay is the equivalent of
theft.
Chuck D is quickly taking on the same role for Napster that he played
in the early days of the MP3 debates. The rapper left his longtime
record label after disputes regarding digital distribution and has
since been a prominent advocate of artists' ability to release music
online independently and retain control of their careers.
"We should think of (Napster) as a new kind of radio--a
promotional tool that can help artists who don't have the
opportunity to get their music played on mainstream radio or on
MTV," Chuck D wrote in an opinion article published in The New
York Times this weekend.
A federal judge is expected to make a preliminary ruling in the
record industry's suit against Napster any day.
