Spectacular Failures

Napster fought the law and the law won

The recording industry, Metallica, and ultimately federal court put the brakes on Napster’s music file sharing. But before exiting the stage, Napster changed the way we listen to music—and how much we’re willing to pay for it. [Editor’s note - Sept. 1, 2020: This episode has been updated to reflect that “CyberTalk” was a group effort overseen by Jeff Gold. An earlier version characterized it as his solo effort.] Our sponsors this week: Bombas: <a class="c-link" href="http://bombas.com/spectacular">bombas.com/spectacular</a> Policy Genius: <a class="c-link" href="http://policygenius.com/">policygenius.com</a> NetSuite: <a class="c-link" href="http://netsuite.com/spectacular">netsuite.com/spectacular</a> Sign up to receive our brand new newsletter, featuring weekly recommendations from Lauren and the rest of the team at <a href="http://spectacularfailures.org/newsletter">spectacularfailures.org/newsletter</a>. Read the transcript of the episode at <a class="default" href="https://www.spectacularfailures.org/">spectacularfailures.org</a>. You can follow Spectacular Failures on <a href="https://twitter.com/FailureShow">Twitter</a> at @failureshow and like us at Facebook.com/failureshow. We're <a href="https://www.instagram.com/failure_show/">@failure_show on Instagram</a>. Follow Lauren Ober on <a href="https://twitter.com/oberandOut">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/oberandout/">Instagram</a> at @oberandout.

Corporate crookedness. Family feuding. Hilariously half-baked decisions. Host Lauren Ober tackles some of the most spectacular business failures of all time, and what could have been done to avoid them. Some of these stories are shocking. Some are funny. Some are just downright sad. But each one will give you a totally new perspective on big business… and big failure. From American Public Media.