Ongoing History Daily: The first legal download, part 2

Last time, we covered how Geffen Records convinced the management of Aerosmith to try an experiment with this new thing called “the internet.” Would it be possible to distribute a digital version of a song called Head First online?

Because the internet was so new, no label or band had ever done such a thing. And because there were no websites, they had to arrange this digital download through CompuServe, one of the few available for people to access the internet.

On June 27, 1994, the song was posted—a full .wav file—for a free download. With the old dial-up modems of the day, it took FOREVER just to download this one song. It worked and got a lot of press at the time.

Entertainment Weekly wrote “Maybe someday, we’ll pay to download Aerosmith.” Still more next time.

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