Paramount+ has announced that the two-part docuseries HOW MUSIC GOT FREE will premiere exclusively on the service in the U.S. and Canada on Tuesday, June 11 and Wednesday, June 12 in the U.K., Australia, Latin America, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. Directed by Alexandria Stapleton (God Save Texas, Reggie), the series made its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival.

From executive producers Marshall “Eminem” Mathers, LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Paul Rosenberg and Steve Stoute and produced by Warner Bros. Unscripted Television/Telepictures in association with SpringHill, Interscope Films and Shady Films, HOW MUSIC GOT FREE details the fascinating, and often funny, inside story of the technology-driven disruption that changed music during the late-90s and early-2000s. File sharing technology, combined with the insatiable demand for new music, created both the means and the motive for millions of young people to participate in outright theft – and be celebrated for it.

 

 

From New York City, to Los Angeles, to the small factory town of Shelby, North Carolina, the two-part series features the quirky genius of the heretofore-unknown “pirates,” the drama of the FBI investigations and convictions, and the frontline accounts of music’s biggest artists and executives. An unbelievable story of cunning, illegality, celebrity, and innovation, these are the events that changed the music industry forever. Narrated by Method Man, the series features interviews with Eminem, 50 Cent, Timbaland, Jimmy Iovine, Rocsi Diaz, Rhymefest, Steve Stoute and more.

“As a filmmaker, I wanted to challenge the narrow lens of who we regard as tech innovators,” said director and executive producer Alexandria Stapleton. “HOW MUSIC GOT FREE is a story that proves brilliant minds can be found in unlikely places, like the rural, forgotten factory town of Shelby, North Carolina.”

HOW MUSIC GOT FREE is directed by Alexandria Stapleton and executive produced by Stapleton, Steve Stoute and Stephen Witt along with Marshall “Eminem” Mathers and Paul Rosenberg for Shady Films; LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson and Philip Byron for SpringHill; Bridgette Theriault, Dan Sacks and James Chapman for Warner Bros. Unscripted Television/Telepictures; Steve Berman, John Janick and Anthony Seyler for Interscope films; and Bruce Gillmer and Michael Maniaci for MTV Entertainment Studios.