The MP3 Book

Historical Archive: Back in early 2000 I was approached by a publisher to write a book about MP3 audio technology; I only wrote the first two chapters before my senior project duties eclipsed book-writing and I needed to shelve the project indefinitely. 20 years later, in 2020, I've resurrected what I had written and am re-publishing it.

Welcome

Welcome! You are free to browse this text, download it, and suggest changes to me. Individuals and non-profits are free to quote this text or even freely redistribute it in its entirety as long as you include a notice at the top of the document stating the author as David Weekly, giving my email address (david@weekly.org) and including a link back to my website (https://david.weekly.org/) -- I'd also really appreciate it if you told me if you do use my content, if for nothing else than curiosity's sake!

If you would like to reprint this material for commercial gain (e.g., for sale via print, online, or offline digital format), please talk to me. I'm sure we'll be able to work something out quite easily!

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Complete planned outline showing all chapters (completed and unwritten)

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Chapter 1: The Hype About Internet Audio

History of MP3 technology from 1996-1999 and why the revolution happened

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Chapter 2: The Guts of Music Technology

Technical foundations: digital audio, Fourier transforms, psychoacoustic compression

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Appendix A: The Author's Story

David's personal journey discovering MP3s and founding the MP3 Audio Consortium

Historical Context

This book was written during the height of the MP3 revolution, when digital music distribution was transforming the music industry. David's perspective as both a technical expert and someone who had lived through the early days of MP3 adoption provides unique insight into this pivotal moment in digital media history.

The book captures the excitement and uncertainty of the late 1990s, when peer-to-peer file sharing was emerging, record labels were scrambling to understand the new technology, and visionaries were imagining entirely new models for music distribution.

💬 Feedback

I would love whatever you can contribute: anything from a typo on a certain page to adding or correcting technical or legal information. Maybe you have some ideas as to how to make the whole thing more readable online. If you think I'm missing a paragraph or a chapter, write it up and send it my way! I'll list your contributions prominently and ever be thankful for your help. =)

📅 Release History

August 15, 2020 - Back from the dead

After two decades of languishing, fished this out of The Internet Archive for republishing!

May 9, 2000 - Draft release (0.04)

Added Chapter Two, automated formatting, deep linking, various corrections

March 29, 2000 - Draft release (0.03)

Initial release: Table of contents, Chapter One, and Appendix A posted

Related Writing

Historical