Downloaded

DOWNLOADING! Once a cause of concern in the industry, yet now a footnote to our all-digital music marketplace. Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker — the latter portrayed by Justin Timberlake in "The Social Network" — seem flummoxed in late-1990s interviews and in court by the lack of foresight in the industry. Director Alex Winter tracks the evolution of our tunes, and current glimpses of Fanning, especially, show how small revolutions can have larger, often disturbing, sound waves.

A documentary that explores the downloading revolution; the kids that created it, the bands and the businesses that were affected by it, and its impact on the world at large.

Who can ever get enough David Boies! This film needed more Boies. Also, it was great to see Sean Parker evolve from teenage geek to slick, young entrepreneur. While Shawn Fanning has largely dropped off the map, Parker is a story all in himself, with his various projects (including Facebook) and involvement with the CIA (which was ignored in this film).

Alan Scherstuhl of The Village Voice states: "The doc is only about as revealing as a middling magazine article on the subject." There is truth to that. Nothing here will be shocking for those who followed the story when it happened, but it is nice to see the story arc all in one place.

"Downloaded" is the story of Shawn Fanning and his revolutionary creation - Napster. This one has a star-studded cast and at a glance could be either very interesting or very boring. The plus side is that you can get everyone's side to the debate.

When I finished watching this, I was a little disappointed. Felt like they hadn't focused on the impact that this caused throughout the industry in quite the right light. Some might disagree.

I saw this one and several other music-themed docs at the Canadian International Doc Festival "Hot Docs". Wayne from Metalworks Studios mentioned his first impressions on a few I couldn't find the time to see: http://metalworksstudios.com/news/blog/item/81-music-documentaries