---
id: napster
title: "Napster / MP3"
year: 1999
category: "Ideas"
lang: en
canonical: https://nodemusic.cc/node/napster
source: node.music
---

# Napster / MP3 (1999)

Ideas · https://nodemusic.cc/node/napster

## Summary

Music lost its body. MP3 turned sound into a file, and Napster allowed it to be transferred instantly. The era of physical media began to crumble, opening the way to infinite access.

## Full text

The MP3 format used psychoacoustics, removing from music what the human ear does not hear to reduce file size by 10 times. Napster turned the sharing of these files into a global phenomenon.

This killed the concept of the album and the physical medium. Music became a 'stream' and data, available instantly. The economic collapse of the recording industry paradoxically led to a flourishing of musical diversity: access to any music in the world was just a click away.

## Connections

### Influenced by

- [Magnetophon](https://nodemusic.cc/node/tape_inv.md) - INSPIRED

### Influenced

- [iTunes Store](https://nodemusic.cc/node/itunes.md) - EVOLVED
- [Vaporwave](https://nodemusic.cc/node/vapor.md) - ENABLED

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster