Today, it is difficult to imagine the existence of the music industry without the presence of the all-encompassing internet. The vast majority of music revenue is made via streaming, artists rely heavily on social media for promoting their work and a great deal of the “fan experience” happens online.

This, of course, was not always the case. Most of the artists featured on this website began making and releasing music long before the internet was made available for public consumption, which led to a complicated new frontier in the industry. Could this new piece of technology assist artists in growing their careers? What would happen as physical music sales dwindle in favor of digital ones? What are the potential downsides and pitfalls?

The rock community’s response to the rise of the internet varied.

In 1994, the year after the World Wide Web became public, the Rolling Stones livestreamed five songs during their concert at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. At that time, the Stones were middle-aged men who had been making music for approximately 30 years, but they clearly had no plans to slow down or turn away from new ways of interacting with fans. Using a service called Mbone — short for multicast backbone — the Stones became the first major rock band to broadcast live over the internet.

“I want to say a special welcome to everyone that’s climbed into the internet tonight,” Mick Jagger said at the show. “I hope it doesn’t all collapse.”

Mick Jagger Takes Matters Into His Own Hands

Jagger in particular embraced the internet as it developed further in the late ’90s and early 2000s. In 1997, he formed his own broadcast company for the sole purpose of broadcasting the Akai-Singer Champions Trophy, a cricket tournament featuring England, Pakistan, India and West Indies.

“Jagged Internetworks is a company founded to produce and promote sports and entertainment events on the internet,” he said in a statement then (via The New York Times). “The first sport we selected was cricket, because of my passion for the game.”

The singer applied a similar approach to his solo music, making sure to keep his personal website, mickjagger.com, stocked with free audio, video and lyrics for his followers.

“The internet has really made great technological strides over the years,” Jagger said to CBS in 2001, not long after releasing his solo album Goddess in the Doorway. “It’s exciting — it makes it possible to share a little something special with my fans.”

READ MORE: Mick Jagger’s 18 Best Collaborations Outside the Rolling Stones

From the beginning, it appeared that Jagger recognized how the internet could expand one’s musical world, having come of age in an era where discovering new music usually meant hearing whatever was popular on the radio at the time.

“It’s very easy now to discover music because there [on the internet] you have all this access to it,” he said in a 2008 interview with MySpace, then an incredibly popular social networking platform. “I remember it being very difficult to find anything that wasn’t in the mainstream of top-selling music. Outside of that it was very hard to find things.”

The Information Superhighway

It wasn’t just the Rolling Stones who saw the writing on the wall in the ’90s. Megadeth set up their own website in 1994 called “Megadeth, Arizona,” where fans could engage with one another in chat rooms and stay informed of band announcements. Also in 1994, Geffen Records made “Head First,” an unreleased song from Aerosmith’s Get a Grip sessions, available for people to download via CompuServe, one of the first major ISPs in America. Back then, it could take up to 90 minutes for a track the length of “Head First” to download, and yet, 10,000 people did exactly that. Small potatoes in the grand scheme of the broader music industry, but a clear sign that the market was there.

“If our fans are out there driving down that information superhighway,” Steven Tyler said in a statement then (via Classic Rock), “then we want to be playing at the truck stop.”

A few years later in 1997, Radiohead created their own website just in time for the release of Ok Computer, an album the band’s own label was skeptical of. But with the help of the internet and subsequent fan sites, Ok Computer and Radiohead on the whole grew in popularity.

Even before that, there were a number of dial-up networks that hosted groups dedicated solely to specific bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish, where fans could share MP3 bootlegs and discuss similar interests.

The Downsides of the Internet

Naturally, there have also been concerns raised by artists and labels alike. Particularly as more and more music was made available to people via the internet, it became clear that some might abuse the privilege. The music of The Beatles, for example, was not put on iTunes until 2010 after years of negotiation. Paul McCartney once raised the issue with Guy Hands, whose private equity firm bought EMI Records in 2007.

“I said: ‘What is the problem? I want to do it; we all want to do it,'” McCartney recalled (via The Guardian). “And he explained that in the deal that we want, they feel exposed. If [digitized Beatles music] gets out if one employee decides to take it home and wap it on to the internet, we would have the right to say, ‘Now you recompense us for that.’ And they’re scared of that.”

It was a valid thing to fear — Metallica even sued Napster in 2000, the infamous file sharing service after discovering their music was floating around it freely. Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich testified before Congress as did Roger McGuinn.

READ MORE: How Music Became a ‘Monolithic Force’ in the ‘90s

Jack White has also stressed on more than one occasion over the years his frustration with how internet development has paralleled changes within music industry.

“We’re in an age now where music is invisible,” he said to The Age in 2003. “Everything is becoming MP3s. In next 10 years it’s gonna be all downloads onto an iPod or whatever it is and there’s not gonna be anything you can hold in your hands anymore.”

White should be noted was at one point co-owner of Tidal a hi-fi streaming platform but at time this writing owns operates Third Man Records which places special emphasis on vinyl production physical releases.

Elton John has previously voiced a rather dramatic opinion: why don’t we turn off internet for a while?

“I do think it would be an incredible experiment,” he said in 2007 (via The Guardian), “to shut down internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced during that span.”

Bob Dylan had a much different albeit facetious take on it. “I’m afraid to go on internet,” he said in 2001. “I’m afraid some pervert’s gonna lure me somewhere.”

David Bowie and Prince’s Warnings

As with many things as powerful as internet there are upsides downsides whole lot gray area between. In 1998 David Bowie created his own internet service provider BowieNet. The following year he released his album Hours… on it effectively becoming first major artist release full album paid download online.

“We are all aware that broadband opportunities are not yet available overwhelming majority people therefore expect success this experiment measured hundreds thousands downloads,” Bowie said statement then (via The Guardian). “However just as color television broadcasts film content home video tapes were required first steps cause their industries expand consumer use I am hopeful this small step will lead larger leaps myself others ultimately giving consumers greater choices easier access music they enjoy.”

READ MORE: Top 20 David Bowie Videos

Still Bowie was aware full possibly dangerous power internet had yet revealed.

“I don’t think we’ve even seen tip iceberg,” he said BBC in 1999. “I think potential what internet going do society both good bad unimaginable I think we’re actually cusp something exhilarating terrifying.”

Another pioneer online music was Prince. From 2001-2006 he had NPG Music Club subscription-based website where fans could access exclusive downloads other information about upcoming releases — precursor sorts streaming platforms like Spotify.

But like Bowie Prince remained wary web. In 1999 he appeared Yahoo Online Music Awards where presented Public Enemy with “Online Pioneer” award.

“One thing I wanted say don’t be fooled by internet,” he said then. “It’s cool get computer but don’t let computer get you. It’s cool use computer don’t let computer use you.”