System Shock: How the MP3 Changed Music

2019

54min

This is the story of the MP3, an audio breakthrough that brought a billion dollar industry to the brink of collapse, but also paved the way for our modern digital lives. Germany 1995, a PhD student makes a technological breakthrough when he discovers how to compress audio without losing sound quality. He calls his new file type an "MP3". Within just a few years, and with the help of a nascent tech community, illegal MP3s begin filling up the hard drives of millions of computers around the world. It's the beginning of our modern digital age and internet culture. Featuring interviews with infamous music executives, artists, and techies, System Shock chronicles how the MP3 crushed the music industry and gave rise to the billion-dollar sharing economy.