The Mp3 format was created by Fraunhofer and Thompson multimedia in the early 1990's and has an advanced compression technique, meaning it enables music to be stored in a form that is as small as 1/12th the size of a normal audio file and still retain the same audio quality. Napster was created specifically to trade this format. Shawn Fanning created Napster and released it in beta form in mid 1999. It only took 11 months after …showed first 75 words of 956 total…

…showed last 75 words of 956 total…a little over $2 each, but due to high demand they now go for about 30 cents each. The creation of the Mp3 format and the popularity of file sharing programs such as Napster has opened up new markets and helped provide and incentive to develop existing ones. Even it the RIAA claims to have suffered huge losses, they still came out positive in the end. If anything, Napster helped publicize new artists and sell more albums.