"If we can compress and distribute words in sound, not just on paper, Amazon won't just sell books—we'll sell ideas, in every form."
That was what Richard said back in 1994, during one of his earliest discussions with Bezos about investing in Amazon.
Unexpectedly, the deal was obscure, buried among the experimental tech investments Bezos made as he dreamed beyond books. Amazon quietly acquired rights to an early form of digital audio compression technology—what would soon become known worldwide as MP3.
The purchase price was modest, just $1 million, which seemed like a side gamble compared to Amazon's main focus as an online bookstore.
But the problem was that the patents were still incomplete and fragmented. The real backbone of MP3 was controlled by Fraunhofer Institute and Thomson, who held the global licensing rights. Amazon had only secured a smaller, peripheral patent connected to compression techniques—not the core algorithm itself.
