I remember as a child for the first time understanding the concept of "The Year 2000." I was fascinated. How old would I be? What would I be doing for work? Would I live at the Hall of Justice with all the superheroes or just share an apartment with Aquaman in Atlantis? As fantastic as it seemed, if you told me how 2000 would actually come to pass I wouldn't believe you. Okay, I would believe you (I believed in cartoons for godsakes...). But the point is that it's been a remarkable year for the Internet in general, and specifically it's been an odd year in the Internet music sector.

To wrap up Y2K (and hopefully saying, "Y2K," ever again), let's take a look at a handful of important dates, what those events meant at the time, and what the news will be next year. Let's look at the predictions first. And remember: at the time of this filing, I am knocking on wood and praying that if anything super weird happens between now and publication you will all forgive me.

This Will Come True. I Swear.

I gaze into the Angry Coffee crystal turntable and see...

1. for 2001 -- 2000 will be remembered in the United States as the year that two important yet arcane systems got torn apart by circumstance: the electoral college system and the major labels system of paying its artists. 2001 will be the year that those changes are born.

2. for 2001 -- Radio will be integrated with Internet technology and delivered to users in a way that makes them happy. Consequently, we will all have to learn what the word "statelessness" means and that public radio is actually a cultural jewel.

3. for 2001 -- David Boies will both host his own late-night talk show, as well as defend the producers of F-Troop: The Musical in a federal civil rights trial...

Happy 1996!

I can't help but draw similarities between Internet music life this year and the portal wars of 1996. Amongst other things, there's an awfully similar tumble of Internet stocks and shrill reports of the end of our entire civilization ("They weren't supposed to read the whole business plan!"). There's an awfully similar (and desparate) movement to make kiosks a good idea ("They will shop for music in airports and like it!"). There is also an awfully similar omnipresence of yahoo-like online music directories popping up on tons of music sites similar to other media groups strategy of 1996 ("They will love Time-Warner's Pathfinder! They will love Disney's Go.com!").

Please note these terms: SCOTUS, POTUS, and WEBUS. Journalists had no idea that these three acronyms would be interconnected when the year began. We had to get used to writing about the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), the President of the United States (POTUS), and the five major record labels, Warner's, EMI, Bertelsmann, Universal, and Sony (WEBUS) intertwining throughout the year in an array of bizarre news items.

There were many other important dates this year, but I picked these because in my notes they showed up as sprawling messy paragraphs of heartfelt rambling. Here goes...

America OnLine Time Warner, Incorporated

January 12, 2000 -- AOL and Time Warner announced that they will merge to form a $350 billion dollar company, the largest merger in history. At the end of the year, December 14, 2000, the Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved a $111 billion merger.

In 2001 we'll find out how this deal first crushes, then opens up, the local ISP market. AOL is still AOL and dial-up will be with us for at least 2001 after all. The mega-merger doesn't answer the question of what's the best dial-up Internet service solution.

MP3, Incorporated

January 21, 2000 -- RIAA sues MP3.com over My.MP3.com. MP3.com stocked their own database of 80,000 CDs. This differs from MyPlay.com and other lockers who encourage users to upload their already paid for CDs. Back on July 21 of 1999, MP3 went public. During that first day of trading, MP3 (MPPP) stock reached $105, and closed at its all time high of $63.31 per share. I doff my cap to Mark Hardie, senior analyst at Forrester Research who said in an earlier 1999 interview, "MP3.com [shares are] going to be worth less than $6 in six months. It's going to go out huge and then go through the floor."

Hoo boy, a hard rain falls by the end of the year on MP3.com.

On April 28, 2000, Judge Rakoff grants a summary judgement for RIAA holding MP3.com liable for copyright infringement. Rakoff sets trial date as August 28 to determine if MP3.com has committed willful infringement. This set off a noteworthy cloud of deals. MP3.com went to WEBUS and settled with four of the Five, reportedly for $20 million each plus up to $11 million each in licensing fees.

Picture a poker game comprised of MP3.com and WEBUS. Warners, EMI, Bertelsmann, and Sony sign settlements with MP3. Everyone turns to Universal to make it official. But the last WEBUS player in the poker game says, "Oh, we're not going to settle. We'll see you in court."

On November 13, 2000, Judge Rakoff postpones the hearing slated for November 14. On November 14, MP3.com settles with Universal for $53.4 million and warrants to buy 3 million shares of MP3 stock at a discount. Referring to it as a "consent judgement," MP3's Michael Robertson won't call it a settlement. If it is characterized as a settlement then the other WEBUS labels might cry foul because they won a lot less at this poker game.

MP3's stock price sank to 2 1/2 in October, 2000.

In 2001 we'll find out how the majors will dice up MP3.com.

Napster, Incorporated

July 26, 2000 -- Music file sharing peer-to-peer corporation, Napster, Inc. is enjoined. Subsequent hearings at the appellate level bring to mind the year's election cover story and how Napster v. RIAA might go to SCOTUS.

July 28, 2000 -- Hold your horses everybody. Napster injunction stayed. Suddenly both sides of the debate got a taste of what it feels like to lose. The discourse from this day forward is becalmed. On Halloween, 2000, Bertelsmann and Napster announce a "strategic alliance."

At issue in this case will be a re-evaluation of the music business as it adopts Internet technology, the nature and history of intellectual property law and its relationship with music, and how musical artists will be able to control how their music is distributed. Sheesh, that shouldn't be too tough, right?

In 2001 we'll find out how the majors dice up Napster.

Scour, not Incorporated

November 3, 2000 -- Scour is a peer-to-peer technology company often mentioned in the same breath with Napster, FreeNet, and Gnutella. It is also bankrupt and found to be a copyright infringer. Today Listen.com, a privately held company, announced it's buying Scour.

There's only one problem. Since Scour is in bankruptcy court, nobody can buy its assets unless those assets are thrown open to bidding. On November 14, 2000, CenterSpan outbid Listen and anybody else for Scour. Listen says that CenterSpan's offer of approximately $9 million in cash and stock was simply more than Scour was worth. Listen had offered approximately $8.5 million.

In 2001 we'll find out if this was a mistake for Listen, a mistake for CenterSpan, a mistake for neither, or a mistake for both.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

November 6, 2000 -- Boasting or not, I need to point out that I wrote in my notes on this day that I cared far more about ABC's Monday Night Football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings than the next day's general election.

Actually, that football game was so weird (a back and forth affair in the sleet at Lambeau Field, finally decided in overtime by a unbelievable circus catch and freak touchdown by Packer receiver Antonio Freeman). At the time I thought with pompous certainty, "no way the election tomorrow will be even as big a story as this football game."

My version of election day went like this: much like other sporting events I turned on election coverage to see who won (I had voted early in the morning) and soon got completely immersed. After the election was called for Bush, I dozed off listening to National Public Radio. I awoke a little before one o'clock, when NPR's Scott Simon began laughing uncontrollable and read that NPR had to retract their call of Florida. I got up and turned on the TV again...

Soon after the election went nuts, Reverend Jesse Jackson characterized the contest to decide POTUS like "a football game that will be settled in overtime."

In 2001 there will be a lot more people walking around who know about the 1876 election in which Rutherford B. Hayes beat Samuel Tilden by one electoral vote.

All is Well! I Think!

Back in 1996 things looked pretty grim if you worked on the Internet. It looked like it would be the first time management would be in labor's driver's seat in the Web workplace and job openings would be scarce. But that didn't happen. Instead real progress in Internet technology led directly to financial opportunity. In 2001 I hope we're wrong in the same way. Because we've been mistaken before, it's plausible that the progress that the Internet makes as an international and universally accessible online community will lead to greater opportunity.