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The Library

The LIFE library is an archive of works encoded in the .life format.

It begins with music - specifically, music that has already been sent into space. The Voyager Golden Record, launched in 1977, carried 27 musical selections chosen to represent humanity to any civilisation that might find it. Those same pieces, encoded in LIFE, form the foundation of this library.

The choice is deliberate. The Golden Record was humanity's most considered attempt at universal communication. LIFE is an attempt to build the translation layer that was always implied by that attempt. Beginning the library where the Golden Record began feels right.

Every file in this library is available for download. Every file is encoded using the standard LIFE v1.0 codec - the 2⁴⁰ scaling constant, harmonic ratio representation, self-describing preamble. Every file is reversible back to its source MIDI without loss.

Current entries​

The library is open. If you have encoded a work in LIFE format and would like it included, get in touch at hello@life-codec.org