Shawn Fanning developed Napster, among the very first popular peer to peer (“P2P”) file sharing platforms, in 1998. The prevalence of Napster was prevalent and Fanning was featured on the cover of “Time” magazine. The website in its first free P2P avatar was shut down in 2001 after the organization ‘s unsuccessful appeal of court orders arising from its supporting the illegal sharing of copyrighted content. A paid subscription edition of the website followed, and was bought by Rhapsody on December 1, 2011. Following his participation with Napster, he joined, and invested in, several early-phase technology startup companies.
In 2002, Shawn Fanning was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as among the top 100 innovators on the planet below the age of 35. In 2003, he started a fresh company, Snocap, as well as Jordan Mendelson (Napster’s Chief Architect), and Ron Conway. The organization aspired to be a valid marketplace for digital media. Nevertheless, their associates as well as the people didn’t react nicely. Customer support was lousy, and specialized problems were numerous. Among their primary associates, CD Baby, wrote a scathing report of the relationship. ValleyWag composed an post that Fanning had long left Snocap and started to work on another enterprise, Rupture. Snocap was looking to sell itself and quickly. In 2008, they found a buyer; imeem got Snocap in a fire sale.