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up among the other companies. “They never suggested anything other than a way for them to own Napster and us to pay them. It was never Thomas doing a favor for the industry,” said Bronfman, who told Middelhoff the day after the announcement that he had made a mistake. Natural competition among the record companies made what was already an unlikely resolution far less achievable, Bronfman and others said. And Bertelsmann’s presence didn’t make up for two huge holes in Barry’s plan: the lack of a business model—still—and the lack of working technology that would guard against constant pirating. Bertelsmann’s move just made it the biggest victim stuck to the Napster tar baby. Middelhoff said the failure of the rest of the companies to follow him showed their poor analysis, not his. “The rest of the industry didn’t see what was going on,” Middelhoff said. “They don’t have an end in this legal battle, and on the other hand [Gnutella successors] Kazaa and MusicCity and all the others have tremendous growth rates, and nothing can stop them.”

Under the new Napster regime, Barry was still in charge. But he had a new and more powerful partial master in Bertelsmann. That was good for Napster’s ability to continue as a going concern, but it further complicated Barry’s renewed efforts to find his own successor as CEO, someone with more operating experience. The candidates weren’t sure who was calling the shots on the Napster board. Barry interviewed several prospective CEOs himself, enlisted Hummer Winblad to help, and hired an outside executive-search firm. According to several people involved in the search, Bertelsmann’s ill-defined power was only part of the problem. Barry didn’t seem to be sure what sort of a CEO he wanted: an entertainment-industry veteran, a Silicon Valley technologist, or a different beast entirely. Since Barry thought that a lot of the issues, and Napster’s ultimate fate, might well be decided on Capitol Hill, he even gave some thought to recruiting a lobbyist for the top job.

The candidates for permanent Napster CEO ranged from former eGroups Inc. CEO Michael Klein to Mark Curcio of the film company Artisan Entertainment and even to Julie Wainwright, the former CEO of the disastrous Pets.com and a friend of Ann Winblad. Most of the people approached about the top job at Napster were too curious to reject the

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