THERE is little doubt that much of the craze on the internet today is about the (seemingly flawless) creation of video using the app. Seedance 2.0. Seedance is an application owned by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. This app has definitely taken video creation to the next level, and Hollywood is taking legal action.
I am not going to discuss who is right or wrong or which tool is better (or going to be better). Instead, I would like to initiate us to think about the future of the industry. Let’s start by highlighting a simple comparison between the trajectory of Napster and the possible future of Seedance (and other similar applications). The trajectories of Napster and ByteDance's Seedance 2.0, while operating in different media and eras, echo a similar pattern of innovation, disruption, and inevitable legal reckoning
For the uninitiated, Napster was founded in 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. Napster was the pioneer of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, where 80 million users circumvented the record industry to swap MP3s for free until legal battles with the RIAA and Metallica forced it into bankruptcy in 2002. The iconic "blue cat" brand spent the next two decades evolving through various legal iterations, including a stint as a paid download store owned by Best Buy and a rebranding of the streaming service Rhapsody, before making its most radical pivot yet in January 2026. Under new ownership by Infinite Reality, Napster abruptly shuttered its music streaming catalogue and reinvented itself as a generative AI platform where users no longer just listen to music, but "co-create" it using AI models and digital personas, completing a full circle from disrupting how music is shared to disrupting how it is made.
Fast forward to 2026, and Seedance 2.0 is poised to deliver a similar jolt to the film and content creation industries. This advanced AI video model, capable of generating cinematic clips, voice, and music from simple prompts, bypasses traditional production pipelines and has instantly demonstrated its ability to replicate existing IP and likenesses. Predictably, this "wild wild west" phase has already triggered strong condemnations and legal actions from major studios and actors' guilds like Disney, Paramount, and SAG-AFTRA, who see it as a direct threat to intellectual property and artistic livelihoods.
While both platforms democratise access to high-end media, Seedance's trajectory is unique due to its backing by ByteDance. Unlike Napster's independent origins, Seedance has significant corporate and legal resources. This allows ByteDance to proactively pivot towards implementing safeguards and pursuing commercial licensing, aiming to integrate Seedance into professional workflows rather than succumbing to a complete shutdown. Both represent pivotal moments where technology outpaced law, forcing industries to adapt or face obsolescence, but Seedance 2.0 has the potential to navigate this storm with greater strategic intent.
Here is the Irony: Napster inevitably forced an evolution of the entire music industry by disrupting the status quo, but in doing so became a victim of the new world it created. It pioneered the idea of "all the music in the world for free," paving the way for Spotify's founding. (Here’s a fun fact: Sean Parker invested in Spotify and served as a board member for seven years. He was instrumental in Spotify’s global expansion. Later, Deeter, Apple Music, Amazon, and YouTube jumped in, and the rest is history.)
What will become of ByteDance’s Seedance is irrelevant. Competitors will catch up. AI models will continue to perfect the system, and this will not stop. This whole process will evolve the industry into different ways of monetisation and business operations, just as Napster did to the music industry. How the industry will evolve is anyone’s guess. What we can be sure of is that what we are seeing is a disruption, the natural backlash and finally a forced evolution of the movie industry.
A Malaysian Reflection
The global disruption sparked by generative AI tools like Seedance 2.0 is not a distant, Hollywood concern—it is a rising tide poised to crash upon the shores of the local creative landscape. As the film and content creation industries face a "forced evolution," the critical question turns to the domestic response, which is more than an economic challenge; it is an existential crisis for Malaysian cultural sovereignty. The velocity of this change threatens to rapidly devalue homegrown skill and intellectual property in our most successful sectors.
To fully appreciate the stakes, we must acknowledge the scale of what is at risk. According to the Cultural and Creative Satellite Account 2024 released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) in December 2025, the cultural and creative industry in Malaysia contributed a massive RM130.7 billion to the national GDP in 2024. This represented a 6.8% contribution to total GDP, expanding by 7.1% from RM122.1 billion in 2023, and employs over 763.1 thousand persons. With the Digital Creative Industry being a major driver, including our recognised position as the largest Animation Hub in Southeast Asia, this is a critical pillar of the national economy.
Understanding the true challenge requires us to actively engage in multisectorial engagement and build dialogues on: What are the possible trajectories for Malaysia? What immediate, tangible steps are local Malaysian filmmakers and production houses taking? Are we merely adopting these tools to cut costs and mimic foreign content, or are we actively defining a uniquely Malaysian AI aesthetic that integrates our culture, language, and inherent storytelling heritage? For instance, if a high-profile, globally successful IP like Upin & Ipin could be cloned and generated by foreign AI with minimal cost - from anyone’s home! What is the true economic and cultural loss to the nation?
Another core challenge is clear: If the tools that generate our stories are coded with biases and values from from Hollywood or Bollywood, will Malaysian audiences still see themselves reflected authentically in their own media?
The choice is for us to ride the wave or be washed by it. - March 9, 2026
K V Soon is a Scoop reader
The post Seedance 2.0 and Napster: History repeating in digital disruption, backlash, and forced evolution? – K V Soon appeared first on Scoop.