''Downloaded'' is a documentary film directed by

Alex Winter Alexander Ross Winter (born July 17, 1965) is a British-American actor and filmmaker. He played the slacker Bill in the 1989 film '' Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' and its sequels ''Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey'' (1991) and '' Bill & Ted Face ...

about the downloading generation and the impact of

filesharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include re ...

on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. A teaser of the film premiered at SXSW on March 14, 2012.VH1 Rock Docs To Host SXSW Panel, Premiere Two New Films In Austin
Elizabeth Black, '' VH1'', February 28, 2012 The

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

made its world premiere at SXSW on March 10, 2013, and was shown at other film festivals around the world.'Downloaded,' film on music downloading, at SXSW
''

El Paso Times The ''El Paso Times'' is the newspaper for the US city of El Paso, Texas. The newspaper has an approximate daily circulation of 65,000 and 125,000 on Sundays. The paper is the only English-language daily in El Paso (when the ''El Paso Herald-Pos ...

'', March 10, 2013 VH1 partnered with AOL to distribute the film widely and was broadcast as a ''VH1 Rock Docs'' feature in late 2014.VH1’s Emmy Award-Winning “Rock Docs” Franchise ANNOUNCES NEW Programming slate FOR 2014
, VH1 Press Room, January 16, 2014VH1 Rock Doc Downloaded To Premiere At South By Southwest
'' VH1'', January 15, 2013Napster Documentary 'Downloaded' to Premiere at SXSW Film Fest
Anita Li, '' Mashable'', January 20, 2013

Plot

This documentary film addresses the evolution of digital media sharing on the Internet. It features exclusive interviews with software developers and musicians about controversial filesharing software, and particularly Napster.Video: Trailer from the Napster Movie, Downloaded
Eliot Van Buskirk, ''evolver.fm'', December 7, 2012 It follows Napster from its rise in 1999, through the swarm of lawsuits that ensued and to its acquisition by

Rhapsody Rhapsody may refer to: * A work of epic poetry, or part of one, that is suitable for recitation at one time ** Rhapsode, a classical Greek professional performer of epic poetry Computer software * Rhapsody (online music service), an online m ...

in 2011. Some of those interviewed include

Henry Rollins Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Roll ...

, Billy Corgan, former

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, former

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainme ...

Chairman

Don Ienner Don Ienner ( ) is an American music executive. He served as president of Columbia Records from 1989 to 2003, and as Chairman from 1994 to 2003. In April 2003 he became president of Columbia's umbrella company, Sony Music U.S., overseeing its musi ...

, former CEO of the RIAA Hilary Rosen, Beastie Boys’

Mike D Michael Louis Diamond (born November 20, 1965), better known as Mike D, is an American rapper, musician, and music producer. He is best known as a founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys. Early life Diamond was born in New York Cit ...

, Nine Inch Nails frontman

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...

, and

Noel Gallagher Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the chief songwriter, lead guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis until their split in 2009. After leaving Oasis, he formed ...

.Alex Winter Debuts Downloaded Trailer
James White, ''Empire'', December 7, 2012

Development

Alex Winter met

Shawn Fanning Shawn Fanning (born November 22, 1980) is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He developed Napster, one of the first popular peer-to-peer ("P2P") file sharing platforms, in 1999. The popularity of Napster was widespr ...

in 2002 and originally set out to write a narrative feature, but he became interested in the many different sides of the story there was to tell. Nearly 10 years after Winter first discussed making the film with Napster founders, Fanning and Parker, he was wrapping up interviews and filmed some of the final footage and interviews at the SXSW Conference in 2012.

Promotion

A trailer for the film was released on December 7, 2012. On March 12, 2013, following the world premiere at SXSW, there was a panel discussion including director Alex Winter and Napster co-founders

and

Sean Parker Sean Parker (born December 3, 1979) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, most notable for co-founding the file-sharing computer service Napster, and serving as the first president of the social networking website Facebook. He also ...

. The film subsequently screened within such festivals as Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and

Maryland Film Festival The Maryland Film Festival is an annual five-day international film festival taking place each May in Baltimore, Maryland. The festival was launched in 1999, and presents international film and video work of all lengths and genres. The festival ...

, with Alex Winter hosting screenings.

Release

The film made its theatrical premiere on June 21, 2013, at

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

’s

Village East Cinema Village East by Angelika (originally the Louis N. Jaffe Art Theatre, also Village East, and formerly known by several other names) is a movie theater at 189 Second Avenue, on the corner with 12th Street, in the East Village of Manhattan in ...

, followed by showings in other select cities. It was released digitally on July 1, 2013.

Reception

Box office

''Downloaded'' opened in limited release on June 21, 2013, and grossed $2,504 at the box office its opening weekend from two theaters.

Critical reception

''Downloaded'' received mixed reviews from movie critics upon its release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 56, based on 6 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" feedback.http://www.metacritic.com/movie/downloaded Critic Reviews for Downloaded.

. Retrieved 9 July 2013. , the film holds a 69% approval rating on film review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on thirteen reviews with an average rating of 6.54 out of 10. Joe Neumaier from the New York's '' Daily News'' called it "A fascinating, alternate-universe look at the dawn of the music-sharing phenom." On July 1, 2013, ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'' rated it #6 on the "Best Movies of 2013 (So Far)" list. On the other hand, Alan Scherstuhl of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'' stated, "The doc is only about as revealing as a middling magazine article on the subject."

References

External links

*
''Official Downloaded'' Facebook Page
* {{Alex Winter 2013 films 2013 documentary films VH1 films American musical documentary films Documentary films about the Internet Films about freedom of expression Documentary films about computer and internet entrepreneurs Films directed by Alex Winter Films produced by Alex Winter Films with screenplays by Alex Winter 2010s English-language films 2010s American films