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Jonathan Sterne. MP3: The Meaning of a Format. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2012. 360 pp.
Jonathan Sterne's MP3: The Meaning of a Format joins a growing body of research on the pre-digital origins of digital media. The major work of the book is to trace the history of the technological research and theoretical assumptions that would eventually be codified in the MP3 format. The meaning of the format, as he describes it, arises not so much from its current dominance of online file sharing or its physical structures - although the book touches upon both topics - as from its incorporation of ideas about the relationship between recorded sound and listening subjects. Sterne advocates "format theory" as an alternative to media theory, and his excellent book demonstrates the rich potential of this approach. In the process, MP3 highlights the contributions of agents who are often downplayed in histories of media: scientific researchers and the developers of corporate infrastructure.
The book's organization is roughly chronological, moving through the three main phases of research that, according to Sterne, led to the codification of the MP3 standard. He locates the MP3's origins in hearing research conducted a century ago. In order to maximize its use of bandwidth (and thus its profits), AT&T worked to determine which frequencies of sound were perceptible and thus strictly necessary for telephony. This allowed the company to harness "perceptual capital,"...