From L To R: Shawn Fanning, Sean Parker, John Perry Barlow, Alex Winter and moderator Eugene Hernandez.
VH1's latest Rock Doc, Downloaded, made its world premiere at the South By Southwest Music Festival on Sunday night. The film tells the story of Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the two teenage hacker wunderkinds who brought the music industry to its knees when they founded Napster in the late 1990s. Earlier today, director Alex Winter joined Fanning, Parker and internet activist/Grateful Dead collaborator John Perry Barlow for a lively panel discussion about the disruptive effect this product had on the world.
We've collected the session's most provocative quotes for you below.
DID THE GRATEFUL DEAD INVENT VIRAL MARKETING?
John Perry Barlow: "The Grateful Dead have done extremely well by giving their work away, and thereby inventing viral marketing.
HOW WILL SPOTIFY BE ABLE TO SUCCEED WHERE NAPSTER FAILED?
WHAT HAS BEEN LOST WITH THE CONSUMER SHIFT TO DIGITAL MUSIC CONSUMPTION?
WHY DID ALEX WINTER FEEL LIKE THIS WAS A MOVIE THAT HAD TO BE MADE?
WHAT, IF NOT MUSIC, WAS THE SECRET SAUCE BEHIND NAPSTER'S SUCCESS?
WHAT IS BIG MEDIA STILL GETTING WRONG?