EST spine 1” Sterne MP3 Jonathan Sterne THE MEANING MP3 OF A THE MEANING OF A FORMAT FORMAT DUKE MP3 sign, storage, transMission A series edited by Jonathan Sterne and Lisa Gitelman The Meaning of a forMaT MP3 Jonathan Sterne ​Duke​university​Press​ Durham​anD​LonDon​ 2012 © 2012 Duke University Press All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ♾ Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan Typeset in Minion by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. f o r C a r r i e The organic has become visible again even within the mechani- cal complex: some of our most characteristic mechanical instru- ments—the telephone, the phono- graph, the motion picture—have grown out of our interest in the human voice and the human eye and our knowl- edge of their physiology and anatomy. Can one detect, perhaps, the characteristic properties of this emergent order—its pat- tern, its planes, its angle of polarization, its color? Can one, in the process of crystallization, remove the turbid residues left behind by our earlier forms of technology? Can one distinguish and define the specific properties of a technics directed toward the service of life: properties that distinguish it morally, socially, politically, es- thetically from the cruder forms that preceded it? Let us make the attempt.—Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization ConTenTs Acknowledgments ix Format Theory 1 1. Perceptual Technics 32 2. Nature Builds No Telephones 61 3. Perceptual Coding and the Domestication of Noise 92 4. Making a Standard 128 5. Of MPEG, Measurement, and Men 148 6. Is Music a Thing? 184 The End ofMP3 227 Notes 247 List of Interviews 295 Bibliography 299 Index 331 aCknowledgMenTs This was supposed to be a short book, a brief comment on a contemporary phenomenon. Instead, I spent the better part of seven years following a major thread in twentieth- century sound history. The book was conceived during an international move. Parts of it have been workshopped in more places than I can count, and it weathered an unplanned temporary detour into departmental administration and an aggressive case of thyroid cancer (in case you are wondering, I recommend the former over the latter). It is impossible to name all the people whose presence or words resonate some- where in this book. But since this is the acknowledgments section I will give it a try. My apologies for any omissions—they are my mistake. I must break convention and begin by thanking the love of my life, she of the legendary laugh, the endlessly creative and twisted Carrie Rentschler, to whom this book is dedicated. I have relished our time together over the last twenty- odd years, whether it was dining in, rocking out, or traveling the world. Her company makes everything in life sweeter—even the bit- ter parts. I am also grateful for her intellectual companionship. No person has read or heard more versions of this book. Her comments have probably touched every page of this book at each stage of its conception. Neither of us needs to say, “now that this book is done, we can finally spend some more time together.” But I fulfilled some promises for wine- tasting trips and a lot of time in a saltwater pool between finishing the book and leaving California. In the same spirit, I would also like to thank my family, all of whom have offered me unconditional support and endless conversation—intellectual and otherwise—as well as needed perspective on what matters in life: my mom and stepdad, Muriel Sterne and Philip Griffin; my brother, sister- in- law, niece, and nephew, David, Lori, Abby, and Adam Sterne; my aunt and uncle, Helen and Mario Avati; and my in-laws, Kay Larson and Judy Ander- son and Louis and Dianne Rentschler. Phil, Helen, and Mario didn’t live to see the book completed, but I keep reminders of them with me. In Montreal I have been blessed with a large community that is at once intellectual and personal. The Department of Art History and Communica- tion Studies has been a happy institutional home for me and I owe thanks to all my colleagues. Darin Barney, Jenny Burman, Cecily Hilsdale, Tom La- marre, Andrew Piper, Marc Raboy, Will Straw, and Angela Vanhaelen all have had conversations with me that directly shaped something in these pages. The rest of my ahcs colleagues, past and present, have provided a wonderful intellectual community, an usually collegial workplace, and good friendship and inspiration as well. I can’t possibly measure their good in- fluence on me: Ting Chang, David Crowley, Mary Hunter, Amelia Jones, Becky Lentz, Hajime Nakatani, Charmaine Nelson, Christine Ross, Richard Taws, and Bronwen Wilson. Cornelius Borck, James Delbourgo, and Nick Dew provided a community for me in the History and Philosophy of Sci- ence Program/science and technology studies (I am still unsure what it is) and exposed me to countless eras and ideas I wouldn’t have otherwise en- countered—they are also all wonderful friends and colleagues. I also must thank the ahcs staff, past and present, who not only supported my work from time to time but also became very close colleagues and confidantes in my time as chair. Thanks to Maureen Coote, Matt Dupuis, Maria Gabriel, x acknowLeDgments Susana Machado, and Jennifer Marleau—I couldn’t have made it through my term without them. Many postdocs, graduate student research assistants, and undergradu- ate students have helped me out at one stage or another. What is that cliché about learning through teaching? My graduate research assistants were Mitch Akiyama, Mike Baker, Adam Bobbette, Didier Delmas, Daniel Moody-Grigsby, Jeremy Morris, Ariana Moscote Freire, Dylan Mulvin, Matt Noble- Olson, Lilian Radovac, Emily Raine, and Tara Rodgers. Many became collaborators on other projects in the process, and I have learned so much from each of them. Emily and Dylan require special thanks for massive amounts of assistance on editing and checking the manuscript as it moved into publication. Other students (and people whom I first met as students but are now onto other things) helped shape ideas in these pages: Hugh Curnutt, Rob Danisch, Sandra Duric, Saalem Humayun, Erin MacLeod, Heather Mills, Jess Mudry, Zack Furness, Steve Gennaro, Tim Hecker, Ran- dolph Jordan, Gyewon Kim, Paulo Maggauda, Ian Reyes, Danielle Schwartz, Raji Sohal, Davide Tidone, tobias van Veen, and Tom Wilder. I am grateful to my postdocs Damien Charrieras, Carlotta Darò, and John Shiga for seek- ing me out and for the intellectual enrichment they’ve provided. Simone Pereira de Sà defied categories and added a lot to the semester she spent with me. I have also been blessed with countless spectacular undergradu- ates, but a few deserve special thanks for their research assistance and for seeking me out for the opportunity: Stephanie Dixon and David Machinist, who both did research for the book; and especially Agent 99, who taught me binary math and helped me chart an early course through the technical literature. In addition to my research assistants, I got help from lots of other people. Two librarians in particular—Adam Lauder and Cynthia Lieve— were more like colleagues in the process and tracked down all manner of materials for me. I am grateful to all the people I interviewed about this project for the gift of their time, and I hope I have represented their ex- periences accurately, if not exactly in the manner they might have imag- ined. Janice Denegri- Knott sent me a long draft of an essay on the business history of the format out of the blue. And my thinking in the last chapter was shaped in part by my experience co- teaching a master’s- level seminar on the future of the music business. I’m grateful to all my colleagues and students over a few years in the course, but especially to David Lametti and acknowLeDgments xi Tina Piper for conversations on intellectual property, and Sandy Pearlman for conversations on the industry and technology. Ideas in this book have been workshopped in dozens of talks, and I am grateful to my hosts and interlocutors, many new friends I made in the process of writing this book as well as some cherished old friends, teach- ers, and colleagues with whom I spent time during my travels. Many of their comments and questions were scribbled down on manila folders (or explained to me in e- mails) and have made their way into the book in one form or another. I have no doubt they make me seem more clever than I am. So thanks go out to: Adriana Amaral, Joe Auner, Anne Balsamo, Eric Barry, Nancy Baym, Jody Berland, Wiebe Bijker, Karin Bijsterveld, Georgina Born, Sandra Braman, Jack Bratich, Michael Bull, Jean Burgess, José Cláudio Cas- tanheira, Nicholas Cook, Brady Cranfield, Kate Crawford, Cathy Davidson, Peter Doyle, Catherine Driscoll, Nina Eidsheim, John Erni, Ben Ethering- ton, Bob Fink, Lawson Fletcher, Aaron Fox, Kelly Gates, Tarleton Gillespie, John Michael Gomez Connor, David Goodman, Sumanth Gopinath, Ron Greene, Jocelyne Guilbault, James Hay, Chris Healey, Alison Hearn, John Heijmans, Lisa Henderson, Karen Henson, Michele Hilmes, Brian Horne, Phil Howard, Alison Huber, Myles Jackson, Steve Jones, Jonathan Kahana, Doug Kahn, Anahid Kassabian, Mark Katz, Julia Kursell, Jean-Marc Larrue, Joan Leach, Tim Lenoir, Takura Mizuta Lippit, Justine Lloyd, Alex Maw- yer, Meredith McGill, Kembrew McLeod, Tara McPherson, Louise Meint- jes, Jairo Moreno, John Mowitt, Lisa Nakamura, Jay Needham, Gina Neff, Dave Novak, Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier, Lisa Parks, Vinicius Pereira, John Durham Peters, Trevor Pinch, Elspeth Probyn, Ron Radano, Jan Radway, Tom Rice, Aimee Rickman, James Riley, Gil Rodman, Christian Sandvig, Kim Sawchuk, Annette Schlichter, Henning Schmidgen, Jeff Sconce, Greg Siegel, Greg Siegworth, Jennifer Daryl Slack, Zoë Sofoulis, Lynn Spigel, Carol Stabile, Jason Stanyek, Charley Stivale, Ted Striphas, Jordan Strom, Peter Szendy, Tim Taylor, John Tebbutt, Catherine Thill, Emily Thompson, Graeme Turner, Greg Wise, Roland Wittje, and ShinJeong Yeo.