The history and future of the mp3

edited August 2012 in General
Interview with Jonathan Sterne author of mp3: The Meaning of a Format.

It looks like this is a book that will interest just about all emusers.

Craig

Comments

  • edited August 2012
    Thanks, Craig, very interesting piece.

    ETA: tangentially related to this, I was chatting with someone the other day and wondering aloud whether in addition to the usual "physicality of the medium" kind of discussion about LPs etc, i.e. usually focusing on the pleasure of having a physical aesthetic object in your hands, also the physical fragility of the medium helps to construct the perceived value in the relationship with vinyl. The fact that you had to be careful with it, try not to touch the surface, clean it every now and then, hold it gingerly by the edges, invest effort in getting it onto the turntable properly, place the sylus just right, etc. must at a sheer bodily level generate a greater sense of value for it as an object than with CDs or, a fortiori, MP3s, concerning which much less care has to be taken (and therefore one ends up caring less?). More recent music objects are not things one has to take care of (as) much.
  • Ok, does anyone else find it funny that this is not available for kindle or iBook?
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