Growth Strategies Case Study

Case Title:

SNOCAP: Can Shawn Fanning's New Venture Replicate Napster's Success?

Abstract:
In 1999, Napster, an illegal music file-sharing service was created by Shawn Fanning, which went on to become a huge success registering 26.4 million users onto its network by February 2001. But concurrently the success of Napster was resulting in huge losses for the music industry and later led to lawsuits and Napster’s closure. Undeterred by the closure of Napster, Fanning founded SNOCAP, which acts as a clearinghouse and an intermediary between the music users, file-sharing networks, on-line music retailers and the copyright owners. But to replicate the success of Napster, SNOCAP has to overcome several challenges.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To highlight Napster's success story and SNOCAP's new business model
• To discuss the viability of SNOCAP's business model and the challenges that lie ahead for the company.

Keywords : SNOCAP; Shawn Fanning; Napster; Success story; P2P (Peer to Peer) network; Technology; Music file sharing; File swapping service; Music industry; Growth Strategies Case Study; Quality

Contents : 
Napster and its Success Story
The New Venture – SNOCAP
Can SNOCAP Replicate Napster’s Success?
Working of Peer-to-Peer Technology
Popular Websites of Europe and the US
Independent Record Labels Registered with SNOCAP
Napster Timeline