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How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy
Audible Audiobook
– Unabridged
"What happens when an entire generation commits the same crime?"
How Music Got Free is a riveting story of obsession, music, crime, and money, featuring visionaries and criminals, moguls and tech-savvy teenagers. It's about the greatest pirate in history, the most powerful executive in the music business, a revolutionary invention, and an illegal website four times the size of the iTunes music store.
Journalist Stephen Witt traces the secret history of digital music piracy, from the German audio engineers who invented the mp3 to a North Carolina compact-disc manufacturing plant where factory worker Dell Glover leaked nearly 2,000 albums over the course of a decade to the high-rises of midtown Manhattan where music executive Doug Morris cornered the global market on rap and finally into the darkest recesses of the Internet.
Through these interwoven narratives, Witt has written a thrilling audiobook that depicts the moment in history when ordinary life became forever entwined with the world online - when suddenly all the music ever recorded was available for free. In the pause-resisting tradition of writers like Michael Lewis and Lawrence Wright, Witt's deeply reported first book introduces the unforgettable characters - inventors, executives, factory workers, and smugglers - who revolutionized an entire art form and reveals for the first time the secret underworld of media pirates that transformed our digital lives.
An irresistible, never-before-told story of greed, cunning, genius, and deceit, How Music Got Free isn't just a story of the music industry - it's a must-listen history of the Internet itself.
- Listening Length9 hours and 13 minutes
- Audible release dateJune 16, 2015
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB00UJZZU8I
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
Listening Length | 9 hours and 13 minutes |
---|---|
Author | Stephen Witt |
Narrator | Stephen Witt |
Whispersync for Voice | Ready |
Audible.com Release Date | June 16, 2015 |
Publisher | Penguin Audio |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B00UJZZU8I |
Best Sellers Rank |
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Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find this book extremely well-written, with an engaging narrative that reads like a spy novel. The book is exhaustively researched and provides a fascinating overview of the mp3's impact on the music industry. Customers appreciate the interesting characters and great inside look at the subject matter, and one customer notes it's the best economic book of the year.
AI Generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book extremely well-written and engaging, comparing it to a spy novel, with one customer noting it's a must-read for tech geeks.
"...I purchased (for Kindle) as an impulse buy, but found to be a really good one...." Read more
"...The book has been thoroughly researched, and is an enjoyable read. Readability Light -+--- Serious Insights High ---+- Low..." Read more
"...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...." Read more
"...All in all, I greatly enjoyed the book, but wish it was edited for clarity and slightly restructured for coherence...." Read more
Customers find the book's information quality excellent, describing it as exhaustively researched and providing a fascinating overview of digital music history.
"...This was just a FUN book to read. It is about entrepreneurship, economics, hacking, and technology's capability to disrupt (not to mention... MUSIC)..." Read more
"...The book has been thoroughly researched, and is an enjoyable read. Readability Light -+--- Serious Insights High ---+- Low..." Read more
"...The author offers an astoundingly detailed account of the lives and conversations between core members of the Rabid Neurosis warez group and their..." Read more
"...This is a fascinating look at the music business and the personalities who shaped the world of music we have available today, including the high..." Read more
Customers praise the book's storytelling, describing it as full of fascinating history and incredibly interesting stories, delivered in a compelling and engaging manner.
"...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..." Read more
"...There are many engaging anecdotes of the personalities who are the major players in this revolution...." Read more
"...Witt - a man who is clearly deeply knowledgeable and full of incredibly interesting stories. As a narrative, the work is captivating...." Read more
"...Wavefront and Adobe Illustrator... Mr. Witt's book is an eye-opening history lesson...." Read more
Customers find the book offers good value for money, with one customer noting it's among the best economic books of the year, while another mentions it provides insights into new financial realities in the music industry.
"...This was just a FUN book to read. It is about entrepreneurship, economics, hacking, and technology's capability to disrupt (not to mention... MUSIC)..." Read more
"I was reading this wonderful book (Kindle-version) on my iPad, trying to figure out where my mind and motivation was during that peculiar time when..." Read more
"...CD's, the emergence of the mps format and the new financial realities in the music industry and in global intellectual property law enforcement...." Read more
"...BTW, note that movies are affordable on Netflix, music is affordable on Spotify, but books are NOT affordable on Audible...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's coverage of music piracy, with one customer noting how mp3 technology transformed the industry, while another highlights its exploration of the ambiguity surrounding piracy.
"...So, this is a story ab out how the mp3 had huge effects all over the music industry; not bad for a technology that was largely declared dead in the..." Read more
"...Thanks for capturing the joy of free music and capturing the real story behind the advance of the mp3...." Read more
"...the digitization of music thru the MP3 ... and the creation of music piracy on a global scale. Will record labels repeat their mistakes? Probably." Read more
"...Must for audiophiles, investors and the mere curious" Read more
Customers appreciate the character development in the book, finding them very interesting.
"...He focuses on three main characters, an important music business CEO, the inventor of the mp3 format and a very interesting disaffected assembly..." Read more
"...The book is very well-written and compelling, with well-drawn characters and a driving narrative...." Read more
"...For anyone who grew up with Napster and bittorrent, it's a great read of the real people behind the scenes." Read more
"Witt creates a wonderful cast of characters, humanizing the otherwise complex technical achievement of creating the MP3 format...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's look, with one describing it as eye-opening.
"...The storytelling is exciting, calculated, and fast-paced. In elegant Hollywood style each chapter leaves one scene at a critical cliffhanger to..." Read more
"...record business and Witt tells the story in entertaining and illuminating fashion." Read more
"Eye opening and a page turner. Author does like to use a lot of weird words when simpler ones would do...." Read more
"A great look at the evolution of the music industry - the development of technology, the evolution of the labels and personal stories of the "pirates..." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2015Format: KindleVerified PurchaseThis was one of those books I purchased (for Kindle) as an impulse buy, but found to be a really good one. Stephen Witt does a great job telling the story of the mp3 and how it revolutionized (for better and worse, I suppose) the music industry. He does this through very well-informed alternating chapters told from the vantage point of different characters - one of the inventors of the mp3, a hacker from North Carolina, a music executive at Universal Music, and some bit players like Steve Jobs and a representative from the Recording Industry Association of America.
In brief, the story is this: a fledgling technology, the mp3, is basically losing out to the industry's preferred mp2 and the Compact Disc... until music hackers discover the amazing potential for ripping music from CDs and keeping them on their computer. This, obviously, affects the music industry, who never anticipated (or didn't know how to think about) the mp3's rise to prominence. So, the music industry needed a way to stop this technology or incorporate it into their fold, which eventually they did with the rise of the mp3 player (which had questionable legality in its early years, as mp3s were primarily associated with hacking). Now, the music industry deals almost exclusively in selling digital media via the mp3, but even now, the music industry is a shell of its former self in terms of sales. The mp3 basically nudged them to monetize in less profitable ways; not only do they sell songs cheaper than via compact disc (and can't rely on selling whole albums), but venues like Spotify monetize music by selling advertising along with it.
So, this is a story ab out how the mp3 had huge effects all over the music industry; not bad for a technology that was largely declared dead in the water during its development. One thing Witt does really well - besides pacing the story like an expert journalist - is that he doesn't moralize too much. Was the mp3's rise because it allowed easy theft so that people could enjoy the fruits of others' labor for free? Or was it a natural and understandable reaction to the cartelization of the music industry (which, during the mp3's rise, was found guilty of collusion to keep the price of CD's up)? Witt doesn't say. If I had to guess, he sympathizes more with the latter (and suggests in the intro that he was one of the kids who got all his music by file sharing services). But he seems to keep the story a bit neutral, allowing each to come to their own conclusions (or read their existing conclusions in).
This was just a FUN book to read. It is about entrepreneurship, economics, hacking, and technology's capability to disrupt (not to mention... MUSIC) all in one. I found it gripping. Any music fan - and especially those who think the medium is the message - will too.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2017When CDs first came out, the promise was “Perfect Sound Forever”. However, viewed differently, CDs were a “maximalist repository of irrelevant information, most of which was ignored by the human ear.”
Research into hearing showed inherent flaws that make it possible to record high-fidelity music with very small amounts of data. This is because the human auditory system discards most of the data anyway.
The other consequence of the reduced size needed for high-fidelity music, was that the whole process of pressing millions of compact discs and selling them through stores, could be avoided. It was possible to save everything you might wish to hear in a single electronic database that could be accessed as needed.
After decades of research into acoustic physics and human anatomy, it was now possible to combine these insights with basic principles of information theory and complex higher mathematics. In the mid-80s, at the Fraunhofer Society, (a German research organization,) the young and brilliant Karlheinz Brandenburg, was leading a team doing just this. Essentially, Brandenburg had produced a compression algorithm that would reduce the data requirement to one-twelfth the size of a CD, with no loss in the quality a person could hear.
In 1987, Fraunhofer committed to creating commercial products based on Brandenburg’s algorithm. The products would be able to be used to both stream and store music.
History has shown that universal standards are not always based on the best technology, but on the aggressiveness of the technology owners. This has been true for the AC/DC “Current Wars” of the late nineteenth century, and to the VHS-Betamax battle of the 1980s.
In five straight head-to-head competitions for the standards for digital FM radio, interactive CD-ROMs, Video Compact Disc (the predecessor to the DVD), Digital Audio Tape, and the soundtrack to over-the-air HDTV broadcasting, mp3 lost to its competitors. The regulatory committees in each of these categories favoured mp2 despite the fact that mp3 offered substantial improvements in audio quality.
At the opposite side of the music industry were those who recorded and produced the CDs. By 1994 their revenues had tripled to above $2 billion.
At the same time, the Fraunhofer team were attending industry trade shows across Europe and America to promote the mp3 standard. Philips was backing the mp2, and at the trade shows the mp2 booths were three times the size of those of mp3. Then an independently refereed head-to-head listening test between the mp2 and mp3, judged mp3 to be significantly better, again. This attracted two clients, Telos, the first enterprise-scale customer and the National Hockey League for whom the mp3 had been specifically calibrated to the sound of the fast action of the game.
In 1993 Intel had introduced its powerful new Pentium chips, the first processors capable of playing back an mp3 without stalling. The new generation of hard drives were coming out with what was then enormous storage capacity of nearly a gigabyte that could store almost 200 songs.
Other new technologies enabled consumers to create their own mp3 files, then play them from their home PCs. “January 20, 1995 (was) the official start date of the mp3 revolution in North America.”
AT&T and Thomson acted as the corporate sponsors of the mp3, and by late 1995 they had invested more than a million dollars in the project. With the file compression capability of the mp3, it was soon possible to download music directly over the Internet, and dispense with the compact disc entirely.
Mp3 had been the leading technology of its kind in the world, and was producing substantial earnings. The format war was over, mp3 had won. However, the mp3 was caught between a music industry that wouldn’t license the technology without a critical mass of mp3 players, and the electronics industry that wouldn’t manufacture the players without a critical mass of mp3 users.
Piracy had always been a problem for the music industry ever since people were able to duplicate audio cassettes and CDs. The ability to put music on websites and underground file servers across the world, led to an explosion of the number of mp3 files in existence. College students filled their hard drives filled to capacity with pirated mp3s.
The stellar earnings of the biggest recording companies in the world in the last part of the 20th century, were disrupted by Shawn Fanning, an 18-year-old Northeastern University dropout. He developed a new piece of software to up- and download pirated music using mp3, that he called Napster. Almost immediately, the freely available Napster became one of the most popular applications in software. By early 2000 there were almost twenty million users, and by mid-year over 14,000 songs were being downloaded every minute.
The Recording Industry Association of America’s CEO Hilary Rosen, understood the danger and the potential of digital technology. She privately pushed for Napster and the major labels to cut a deal, but the industry chose to “sue mp3 out of existence.” The industry won against Napster, but not against mp3, which continued to grow. The industry had won the wrong lawsuit.
Napster had made file sharing easy. Previously you could find apps on the internet, but they were difficult to use, limiting the number of participants. Using Napster, anyone could type the word “mp3” into Yahoo!, and have a hard drive full of pirated albums in minutes.
In late 2001, the success of the iPod caught everyone by surprise, including Apple. The firm had underestimated the volume of pirated mp3s available. Apple actively encouraged paid, legitimate downloading, but landed up making money from the illegal activities of Napster.
In 2002 the music industry’s losses were the largest in American history. Eventually, with little help from the recording industry, the iTunes Store was established to sell songs for 99 cents. As the iPod became ubiquitous, the mp3 was no longer seen as inferior to the compact disc, and iTunes produced a seamless Web sales experience. Steve Jobs promised the recording industry 70 cents of each dollar for every mp3 song downloaded.
By the end of 2010 the recording industry contracted to less than half its 2000 size. In 2012, North American sales of digital music surpassed sales of the compact disc. After 17 years of psychoacoustic chaos, only a third of the U.S. music industry’s income still came from physical album sales, and slightly more globally. In 2013, revenues from subscription and advertiser-supported streaming passed $1 billion for the first time. However, artists with millions of plays, only earned royalties in the hundreds of dollars.
“How music got free” – is a multifaceted tale with many winners (the consumers,) and many losers (the recording companies and the artists.) The book has been thoroughly researched, and is an enjoyable read.
Readability Light -+--- Serious
Insights High ---+- Low
Practical High ----+ Low
*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works.
Top reviews from other countries
- silviosavReviewed in Italy on October 25, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars How few people can change an industry from the bottom
It's a wonderful book which gives you a clear view on one of the biggest revolution of our history from three point of view, that of an inventor, that of a bootlegger and that of a manager. This is where all it began but everyone took a part unconsciously, and you like me could find yourself in some part of it. It's not something only disruptive like it could seem, but it's even a tech revolution, a new way of listening music and a new way to start a revolution from the bottom, from the net, like many of our days. In my opinion it proves that when something works and it's better for everyone, there's no business, no lost recognition, which can stop the change, and for everyone else who have lived in an old way there's just one way to survive, follow the flow and re-invent yourself!
- GregoryReviewed in France on January 1, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Well documented and fascinating book
I consider this book as an achievement, as it mixes several good things. Writing: this book is written like a thriller and once you've started, it's difficult to put it down. Industry perspective: this book gives you a good overview of the changes that have impacted the music industry over the last decades. Technical perspective: this book provides simple and clear explanations about music compression and its challenges. It explains the competition between music compression formats (MPEG 2 vs. MP3).
However, what I consider as the major achievement of this book is its account of music piracy networks, and especially The Scene and Rabid Neurosis. The author breaks the myth that music piracy was a widespread phenomenon and evidences the fact that most of it has been done by one man (an article published in April 2015 in The Guardian call this man "the man who destructed the music industry"). It's incredible to discover how those pirates were able to download CDs even before they were released in shops.
A great book, worth reading, especially if you enjoy music.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on July 31, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book.
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseVery very inciteful - it will be interesting to read an update 20 years from now as technology changes.
- Mohit BhatiaReviewed in India on May 23, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for internet history lovers
An amazing book telling the story of how Music Industry evolved covering the 90s and 2000s from different povs.. Briefly explores what is wrong and what is right when it comes to sharing on the internet but remains objective
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Dennis SchützeReviewed in Germany on February 22, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Spannend wie ein Thriller: MP3s, Leaks, Filesharing & Piraterei in der formativen Phase der digitalen Gesellschaft
Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseWitt erklärt bereits in der Einleitung, dass er diese aufregenden Zeiten des medialen Wandels als junger Student und aktiver Filesharer selbst miterlebt hat. Jahre später hat er sich dann für die Protagonisten und deren Motivation interessiert und ist dem in intensiver und nicht immer einfacher Recherche nachgegangen. Er hat die spannende Erzählung auf verschiedene Blickwinkel verteilt um die Geschehnisse greifbarer zu machen. Zentrale Handlungsstränge sind die Geschichten der Figuren Karlheinz Brandenburg (Forscher am Erlanger Fraunhofer Institut und Entwickler des MP3-Formats), Bennie Lydell Glover (Mitarbeiter eines amerikanischen CD-Presswerks, aktiver Leaker und Filesharer) und Doug Morris (CEO diverser globaler Medienkonglomerate), dazu kommen passagenweise weitere Akteure wie Shawn Fanning (Napster), Alan Ellis (Oink) u.a.
Die Erzählung beginnt mit der Entwicklung des MP3-Formats und der langwierigen Entfaltung ihrer Wirkungskraft. Es werden die Umstände in damaligen Presswerken und das etablierte Geschäftsmodell der Musikindustrie beschrieben. Selbstverständlich spielen auch die ersten Sharingplattformen und herausragende Leaks eine tragende Rolle. Witt ist bestens informiert und schreibt kenntnisreich und eloquent. Es gelingt ihm auch trockene Materien, z.B. Laborversuche, Entwicklerkonferenzen und Patentrechtsverhandlungen wie einen spannenden Kriminalroman zu erzählen und im Grunde ist es zusammengenommen ja auch genau das. Immer wieder scheint er sich allerdings Details zu verlieren, zitiert Dialoge und nähere Umstände, die er nicht kennen kann und ganz offensichtlich geschmacksverstärkend hinzugefügt hat. Wesentliche Sachinformationen sind davon allerdings an keiner Stelle betroffen, somit bleibt er dem Stil der klassischen amerikanischen Non-Fictional Novel im Grunde treu. Witt hält die Chronologie der Handlung im wesentlichen ein, als zeitliche Marker dienen die diversen Leaks und bekannten VÖs von Rap-, Rock- und Popalben, die rückblickend taggenau datiert werden können. Zusätzlich zu den aufwändigen Interviews, werden auch Artikel aus Fachmagazinen und Protokolle von Gerichtsverhandlungen verwendet.
Gerade in der englischen Version braucht man Leser allerdings schon ein erweitertes Erkenntnisinteresse und einen langen Atem bzw. viel Sitzfleisch. Ausdauer wird jedoch belohnt, Witt leistet ganze Arbeit, das Ergebnis ist beeindruckend und es wäre nicht verwunderlich, wenn aus dieser literarischen Vorlage in nicht allzu ferner Zeit ein spannender Hollywoodfilm entstehen würde würde.
Der Autor lässt tief Blicken in die medialen und technischen Bedingungen der beschriebenen frühdigitalen Ära, hält sich aber mit Bewertungen und Urteilen auffällig zurück. Das mag daran liegen, dass er wie erwähnt selbst als Filesharer aktiv war. Es wird aus der Geschichte aber auch deutlich, dass der Ablauf in seiner Konsequenz historisch unvermeidlich war und daher eine Aburteilung der Aktivitäten Einzelner billig wäre und dem Thema nicht gerecht werden würde. Dieselben Unternehmen die digitale Kopien von gepressten CD-Alben verhindern wollten, verkauften ihren Kunden auch CD-Brenner und Rohlinge, dieselben Unternehmen, die Internetverbindungen anboten, wollten den Kunden den Austausch von Daten über digitale Netzwerke verbieten. Computer-Nutzer zahlten verdeckte Lizenzen für Codierprogramme und sollten gleichzeitig durch Blockadesperren daran gehindert werden bezahlte, eigene CDs auf ihren Rechner zu ziehen, zu komprimieren und/oder auf mobilen Playern zu nutzen.
Die spätere Erfindung von iPod, Downloadportalen, Smartphones und Streaming zeigt wie hoffnungslos dieser Kampf gewesen ist und welche Potentiale die Vertreter der großen Medienunternehmen nicht erkannten oder lange Zeit nicht kommerziell nutzbar konnten, stattdessen wurde die eigene Kundschaft kriminalisiert ohne ihnen eine funktionierende, kommerzielle Alternative zu bieten. So gesehen waren die Piraten der ersten Stunde wegweisende Pioniere, die etliche technische Entwicklungen erstmals konsequent anwendeten und so die Vorteile der Digitalisierung selbst noch dem letzten, minderjährigem Nutzer vor Augen führten. Hat nur etwas gedauert bis die Industrie das kapierte, nachzog und wieder Profit daraus ziehen konnte. Die gesamte Medienlandschaft und die Art des Musikkonsums hat sich im Zuge diese Entwicklung unumkehrbar verändert.
Eine nachvollziehbare Erzählung dieser bedeutsamen Geschichte war überfällig und hat einen hohen Lehr- und Unterhaltungswert. Interessant daran ist vor allem, dass es anders war, als man erwartet hätte bzw. als das Narrativ der Unterhaltungsindustrie es gegenüber den Endverbrauchern dargestellt hat („Copy kills Music“). Die großen Player standen der Entwicklung vorwiegend im Weg, maßgeblich angetrieben wurde sie von einer handvoll spleeniger Einzelkämpfer, die sich zum allergrößten Teil nicht einmal persönlich kannten: Sie sind die ‚Unsung Heroes of the Digital Revolution’.
Fazit: Ein sehr anregendes Buch über ein entscheidendes Stück Mediengeschichte, deren Auswirkungen wohl so gut wie jeden betreffen. Empfehlenswert für Medienhistoriker, Kulturwissenschaftler, Musikforscher, genaugenommen eigentlich für jeden der Ohren hat zu hören.