Book review: How Music Got Free: What Happens When An Entire Generation Commits The Same Crime?

STEPHEN WITT is a self-confessed downloading addict, who claims he hasn’t paid for music since the turn of the millennium.

Stephen Witt

Bodley Head, €22.10;

ebook €14.99

As such, he is well positioned to write this admittedly personal account of how the invention of the mp3 changed the way we consume music forever.

Beginning with Karlheinz Brandenburg — who dedicated years of his life to perfecting and marketing the mp3 format — How Music Got Free explores the motivations of those involved in the moral morass of illegal filesharing with aplomb.

And whether writing about producers or pirates, research into psychoacoustics, or the intricacies of copyright infringement trials, Witt has a knack for eking out illuminating human foibles.

Despite a tendency to romanticise the early 2000s as something of a golden age, even his idols are not saved a skewering by his keen sense of irony, making this a surprisingly engaging guide — providing you’ve got a prior interest in the topic.