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by Robin Sharma
What happens when an entire generation commits the same crime?
How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt tells the story of the music industry's evolution into the digital era, from the birth of MP3 to the rise of pirated music. It’s a fascinating tale of technology, greed, and the enduring power of music that changed the industry forever.
When the very first CDs started appearing on the shelves of music stores, people who were familiar with data storage already knew these discs were an inefficient delivery system. This was especially true for those who studied psychoacoustics, the science of sound perception.
As early as the 1980s, one German team working with empirical psychoacoustic data started experimenting with digital music compression.
In 1987, a team lead by doctoral student Karlheinz Brandenburg came together at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. Their goal was to reduce the size of digital audio files by way of extracting bits of information and sound that were scientifically proven to be imperceptible to the human ear.
Originally, the goal was to reduce the size of a CD track, which averaged about 1.4 million bits, to one-twelfth of its size, i.e., about 128,000 bits.
After years of testing and collaborating, the team finally reached their goal. They took music from every genre and used the recordings of a single human voice, bird sounds and even jet engines in order to perfect their compression methods. Interestingly, the human voice on its own proved to be the most challenging sound to deal with. Fun fact: the team tested it by using the acapella intro to Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner.
The group continued perfecting their work and it wasn’t until 1989, when Brandenburg collaborated with James Johnston, who was working independently on his own psychoacoustic algorithm at AT&T-Bell Labs, that the quality of their compressed files started to sound indistinguishable from that of a CD.
How Music Got Free (2015) tells the remarkable story of the mp3 file, from its inception in a German audio lab to its discovery by a man working in a North Carolina CD-pressing plant, who would eventually team up with a piracy group to bring the entire music industry to its knees.
How Music Got Free (2015) is a fascinating exploration of the music industry's transformation in the digital age. Here's why this book is worth reading:
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Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trialBlink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
What is the main message of How Music Got Free?
The main message of How Music Got Free is the revolutionary impact of digital piracy on the music industry.
How long does it take to read How Music Got Free?
The reading time for How Music Got Free can vary but it typically takes several hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is How Music Got Free a good book? Is it worth reading?
How Music Got Free is worth reading for its compelling narrative of the rise of digital piracy and its consequences for the music industry.
Who is the author of How Music Got Free?
The author of How Music Got Free is Stephen Witt.