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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
Thrilled to have received my copy of Stephen Witt's How Music Got Free in the post on its date of official publication, I made myself comfortable, put on a full pot of coffee, and eagerly dove into what I anticipated would be a fast-favorite addition to my library.
The book quickly settles into an exciting rhythm - its chapters circling around the activities of key figures in the story of the music industry and of music piracy in the last thirty years. It begins with the struggle of Karlheinz Brandenburg to develop his MP3 audio compression format over twelve years of fine-tuning and a constant battle for acknowledgment by a fiercely competitive industry.
The action then jumps to a few seemingly inconsequential men working at the PolyGram compact disc manufacturing plant in North Carolina - an unsuspecting locale for the most pivotal characters in the end of an industry.
A chapter later, we are privy to private exchanges between the newly-appointed CEO of Warner Music and his fellow overseers of the empire. As the story unfolds, we follow these figures through label acquisitions and purges, through major shifts in industrial policy, through aimless crackdowns on "pirates" including the elderly, the deceased, and a 12-year-old girl who'd downloaded the theme song to Family Matters.
As these individual stories progress, the reader develops an in-depth perspective of the tumultuous end of an era for recorded music. The author offers an astoundingly detailed account of the lives and conversations of core members of the Rabid Neurosis warez group and their suppliers. The storytelling is exciting, calculated, and fast-paced. In elegant Hollywood style, each chapter leaves one scene at a critical cliffhanger to pick up at a similar point of action from another of the sub-plots in the puzzle that was turn-of-the-century music.
I read How Music Got Free eyes wide from cover to cover, captured by every thrilling twist in the tale. What could have been a dry and drab account of compression algorithms and legalities is instead an action-packed saga of a dangerous underground organization where anonymity is critical and risk is always high.
The book also explores the advent of the iPod and the birth and death of numerous filesharing services like Kazaa, Grokster, Limewire, Bearshare, the rise and fall of TPB, and Oink, as well as a few contemporary players I'd never expected to see named in print.
The ending is incredibly satisfying, and even evokes a strong sense of emotion and empathy in the reader - yet another surprise I hadn't anticipated from a text on piracy. Witt's book is a fascinating read and adds a much-needed perspective to a story which is still being played out before our eyes. This is easily my favorite title of the year.
The book quickly settles into an exciting rhythm - its chapters circling around the activities of key figures in the story of the music industry and of music piracy in the last thirty years. It begins with the struggle of Karlheinz Brandenburg to develop his MP3 audio compression format over twelve years of fine-tuning and a constant battle for acknowledgment by a fiercely competitive industry.
The action then jumps to a few seemingly inconsequential men working at the PolyGram compact disc manufacturing plant in North Carolina - an unsuspecting locale for the most pivotal characters in the end of an industry.
A chapter later, we are privy to private exchanges between the newly-appointed CEO of Warner Music and his fellow overseers of the empire. As the story unfolds, we follow these figures through label acquisitions and purges, through major shifts in industrial policy, through aimless crackdowns on "pirates" including the elderly, the deceased, and a 12-year-old girl who'd downloaded the theme song to Family Matters.
As these individual stories progress, the reader develops an in-depth perspective of the tumultuous end of an era for recorded music. The author offers an astoundingly detailed account of the lives and conversations of core members of the Rabid Neurosis warez group and their suppliers. The storytelling is exciting, calculated, and fast-paced. In elegant Hollywood style, each chapter leaves one scene at a critical cliffhanger to pick up at a similar point of action from another of the sub-plots in the puzzle that was turn-of-the-century music.
I read How Music Got Free eyes wide from cover to cover, captured by every thrilling twist in the tale. What could have been a dry and drab account of compression algorithms and legalities is instead an action-packed saga of a dangerous underground organization where anonymity is critical and risk is always high.
The book also explores the advent of the iPod and the birth and death of numerous filesharing services like Kazaa, Grokster, Limewire, Bearshare, the rise and fall of TPB, and Oink, as well as a few contemporary players I'd never expected to see named in print.
The ending is incredibly satisfying, and even evokes a strong sense of emotion and empathy in the reader - yet another surprise I hadn't anticipated from a text on piracy. Witt's book is a fascinating read and adds a much-needed perspective to a story which is still being played out before our eyes. This is easily my favorite title of the year.
informative
fast-paced
I liked it both for the history of the mp3 and the history of musical piracy connected.
On the music, and music engineering side, I love how it points out that audiophile snobs, high from sniffing too much vintage vinyl, are wrong about it ... and so are the CD version of such snobs.
Great overall read on both mp3 and piracy
On the piracy ... I think the idea, once it became known, that CDs had just a $1 each overhead may have increased the "what the heck" of many midlevel pirates.
That said, along with the author, I'm a journalist. And, unlike a Cory Doctorow, I still believe in the idea of copyright — while at the same time rejecting the copyright greed of massive copyright length expansions.
The part about jury nullification at the end was interesting. Surely, on the civil side, defendants in RIAA suits had jury trials; did the judges in every case ban advance testimony about penalty amounts, or is jury selection getting even bigger on the civil than the criminal side? And, of course, the Constitution guarantees legal representation in criminal cases; civil cases another issue. Witt probably could have explored that more, but it was still a very good book.
On the music, and music engineering side, I love how it points out that audiophile snobs, high from sniffing too much vintage vinyl, are wrong about it ... and so are the CD version of such snobs.
Great overall read on both mp3 and piracy
On the piracy ... I think the idea, once it became known, that CDs had just a $1 each overhead may have increased the "what the heck" of many midlevel pirates.
That said, along with the author, I'm a journalist. And, unlike a Cory Doctorow, I still believe in the idea of copyright — while at the same time rejecting the copyright greed of massive copyright length expansions.
The part about jury nullification at the end was interesting. Surely, on the civil side, defendants in RIAA suits had jury trials; did the judges in every case ban advance testimony about penalty amounts, or is jury selection getting even bigger on the civil than the criminal side? And, of course, the Constitution guarantees legal representation in criminal cases; civil cases another issue. Witt probably could have explored that more, but it was still a very good book.
Thoroughly enjoyed this! Witt weaves the story of three central figures—the creators of the MP3, one of the most well-known and successful music executives and one of the most prolific "leakers"—together to create a fascinating look at digital music (and piracy) revolutionized the music industry.
informative
tense
fast-paced
It's a pretty amazing conceit: if you bought or stole music (i.e., stole mp3s) anywhere between 1996 and 2005-- which I definitely did both-- some if not all of that music passed under the eyes of a rural North Carolina factory worker named Dell Glover. And it's a testament to Witt's storytelling ability to weave Glover's tale within the seismic changes of the digital economy, technological limits and ultimate demise of the record industry. So while I was way into this, having had a seat in this arena... I'm not sure of the draw for someone who wasn't. If this is something you're interested in, you'll be well served by this book.
If you like music you’d probably like it. If you’re required to read it for a class you hate; you’ll hate it.
Great read for any music enthusiast who lived through the digitization and pirating of music pre and post the short lived Napster (the AOL of downloading). From compression of CD to MP3 that was like landing on the moon, a reduction of a 12 to 1 ratio, to the pirates who were not in for the money but the notoriety of releasing CD's on the internet before it was in the stores and the fact that billions of downloads can be traced to a dude called 'Glover' I found this book fascinating. Author does a great job threading multiple story lines around a common narrative which I found very compelling. And you know what broke the back of the music industry - portable MP3 players i.e. Ipod. Before that happened CD's were still selling well as a PC was not quite portable.
Excellent book - I read it in about two weeks as it is really gripping.
Covers both the technical side of why the .mp3 made such a difference and the rise of Napster and BitTorrent but also the human actions from high level machinations in the record industry to the individual leakers and bootleggers ripping the music.
Would recommend.
Covers both the technical side of why the .mp3 made such a difference and the rise of Napster and BitTorrent but also the human actions from high level machinations in the record industry to the individual leakers and bootleggers ripping the music.
Would recommend.
Excellent sleuthing and storytelling by author Witt. Provides a glimpse into the technical/scientific side of audio encoding, how warez forums and pirating happens, as well as a look into the ways of the music industry in contemporary times. Is a little bit heroic in the way Witt presents the little man making a huge impact that threatens the big corporate conglomerate global interests. A great history from both a technical and cultural perspective.
I actually listened to this book on audio, read by the author, and found him to be a terrific narrator.
I actually listened to this book on audio, read by the author, and found him to be a terrific narrator.