Napster was first available for public use in June 1999. The owner, Fanning, wanted to create an easier way to share music on the Internet. It grew to be the first very popular such service on the web soon after it was created. Napster, at its peak, had 80 million users and 25 million songs. It never crashed once.
In 2000, the heavy metal band Metallica became the first prominent artist to sue Napster. Soon other artists, such as Dr. Dre and Madonna, and record companies filed suit. They won when the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Napster to block access to copyrighted material.
Napster shut down in July 2001 and declared bankruptcy the following year. Napster had to pay acts and companies more than 26 million to compensate for past infringements. The company tried to stay alive as a subscription service but did not survive.
The name and logo for Napster have been in use since 2002. Originally it was purchased by Private Media Group, which offered a paid service. In September 2008, Best Buy purchased the company for $121 million.