Ongoing History Daily: The first legal download, part 3

On June 27, 1994, Aerosmith became the first band to offer a song as a digital download via the old service, CompuServe. It was done as an experiment, a proof-of-concept thing. Little did anyone know at the time that this really was the future. In 1997, Duran Duran became the first group to sell a digital single online when they released Electric Barbarella this way. In 1998, David Bowie established his own internet service called BowieNet and became the first artist to sell a full album digitally with his Hours release. He even did a webcast that detailed how one of the songs was made. By this time, MP3s had become a thing and more and more people were finding ways to get their music online. And on June 1, 1999, the original Napster debuted. Things haven’t been the same since.

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