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A documentary based on Stephen Witt's excellent book "How Music Got Free" has now been released and features interviews with many key players in the mp3 scene, particularly RNS.
Watch the trailer and stream the whole documentary on Paramount+.
Stephen's book is also a great read for anyone interested in the history of the scene, the inner-workings of groups such as RNS, and the arrests of 2009.
The new RIAA Council (who have attempted to usurp the existing MP3 Council) issued a nice summary of the scene to date with the 2013 ruleset:
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Dear MP3 scene,
For much too long have we been looked down upon as being thoroughly inconsistent alongside highly retarded in what are known as our releasing standards. Now time as finally come for us to bid farewell to our collective ruling inability and embrace what shall forever be known as the most brilliant polished set of MP3 scene rules to ever see the ...
Mergers and splits have always been commonplace within the warez scene; discontent members leaving one group to form another or release groups combining forces under a new name.
With the exponential increase of new release groups forming in 1998, keeping track of mergers/splits became a difficult job. As part of our ongoing archiving, we've been attempting to create an accurate document of these events in the form of a timeline.
This is still very much a work-in-progress and many minor groups are still missing, but think of this ...
Since the inception of the mp3 scene in 1995/96, packaging methods have changed drastically. Initially groups had their own quality standards/rip methods and it wasn't until late 1998 that 'official' scene rules were established.
This article outlines the packaging methods & standards utilised throughout the history of the scene.
The first organised mp3 groups - CDA, DAC & RNS - initially packaged mp3's in a similar way to the 0day/app scenes; releasing a single track at a time, split into 1.44MB RAR files which ...
Article that originally appeared on dmusic.com, written by Chad Hart on Sep 27, 2000. Part in a series that covers 96-99.
1997 was a year shaped by the accomplishments and efforts of the energetic early adopters, who forged a path for those that would soon follow.
MP3 was an IRC-only phenomenon for much of 1996 and 1997 until people started to construct websites dedicated to the format. These early websites described the format, and made the tools needed to create and play the files available to all those that ...