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some not quite peer-to-peer models, but something similar in IRC, without the searching. We talked about how to optimize it.” By the end of the meeting, Scott decided he had heard enough. “This is the next logical step,” he thought. “This is going to catch on big time.” Just like that, the Shinns decided to quit Cisco and work for Napster.

The Shinns had $1.2 million to invest from the WheelGroup takeover, and John Fanning wanted it. But in the discussions over what their role at Napster would be, the Shinns grew concerned about John Fanning's outsize stake in the firm. “Mike and I said, ‘This capital structure is kind of weird. Do you want to redo it?’ and John Fanning said no,” Scott said. “We were not convinced it was going to work, so we bowed out.” The Shinns kept talking to Shawn, but in July 1999 they formed their own firm, along with Parker and Perrelli, to develop other music technology. ETantrum, as the firm was called, refined Scott's MP3-hunting bot and added a recommendation tool that analyzed the music that a computer user was listening to on his MP3 player. The bot would then go out and find similar songs. “We were always like technology cousins,” Scott said of eTantrum and Napster. “What we were evolving into was the realistic business half of Napster.”

ETantrum and Napster compared notes often, but the most dramatic moment in the two firms' relationship came later that summer. That's when the Shinns decided that Shawn alone was worth their million dollars, as long as he came without John Fanning. “We didn't want the uncle. We just wanted Shawn,” Scott said. While Scott was chatting to Shawn over IRC, Mike called him on the phone. “I've got a million dollars,” Mike told him. “I'll give you a million dollars if you come work for us.” The phone went silent on Shawn's end as he tried to digest the offer and looked around for his uncle. “I have to call you back,” Shawn said. Minutes later, he messaged Scott, worried that eTantrum would start its own peer-to-peer system. “Dude, you're not doing what we're doing, are you?” Scott told him no, and it was true. Besides wanting to avoid direct competition with their friends at Napster, the Shinns believed the record industry would soon be screaming for blood. They thought it would be safer if they worked on the recommendation service and incorporated a way to buy music. They would still have to make some kind of a bargain with the RIAA, they felt, but they wouldn't have to give away as much when they did.