Napster began as a peer-to-peer file-sharing platform in 1999 and later became a licensed music streaming service after legal action led to its shutdown.

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Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker in 1999, the original service let users freely share MP3s before legal battles with record labels and artists like Metallica shut it down in 2001.

Napster was a pioneer in piracy, launching in 1999 as a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing service mostly for music. It shuttered in 2001, buried by a court order after a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits