disinformation | justin frankel: riot nrrrd

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justin frankel: riot nrrrd
by roy christopher (royc@frontwheeldrive.com) - January 07, 2001

At the ripe old age of 19, Justin Frankel single-handedly turned the record industry on its ear and revolutionaized digital music. How?

He created a free player for the MP3 digital audio format called Winamp and made it available to whomever wanted to download it. As it now reads on Winamp.com: "Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music player for Windows 95/98/NT. Winamp supports MP3, CD, WMA, Audiosoft, Mjuice, MOD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called skins and audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins."

Since its release (Winamp 1.0 was released in April of 1997), the US$12-billion-a-year music industry has been up in arms over copyrights, producer fees, intillectual property, etc., etc. - and for good reason:

By late 1998, over 15 million people had downloaded Winamp to play their pirated MP3s. Drowning in its own complaints, the music industry has been forced to redesign its entire business model and compete online instead of in the courtrooms.

Justin Frankel grew up in Sedona, AZ and started a software company ('Nullsoft' - a jab at Microsoft) based around his Winamp player. He then sold the tiny company to online giant America Online. Justin Frankel is currently worth over US$70 million and barely in his 20s. Read on to find out how the geeks are still taking over.

Billboard Online Sites + Sounds
As usual, if someone is actually innovating, Microsoft is trying to squash them.

MP3 Power With Winamp Book Review
A review of the premiere MP3 book by Frankel, et. al.

'Wired' New Media Story On Frankel
A brief story by Po Bronson from the summer of 1998 about Winamp and the rise of bootlegged digital music.

The Phoenix Business Journal
Another good story on the selling of Nullsoft to AOL.

MP3.com Interview
A quick interview with the creator of WinAmp.

The Cincinatti Enquirer's Technology Section: Revolution In Music
The 'Cincinatti Enquirer' newspaper's story on Frankel's hand in the new online music revolution.

TIME Digital: Justin Frankel, Disabling The System
An in-depth and informative profile of Frankel on the 'TIME Digital' web-site.

Nullsoft
Frankel's software company that AOL bought up.

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