 Online Music
First Published: August 1999
Last Update: April 2002
Author: Computer Partners
MP3 not only provides great music for listeners, but it has
thrown a wrench into the music industry forcing it to come up with better
technology to compete.
In the August edition of Wired magazine, Vito Peraino
reported that 17 million MP3 files are downloaded from the net daily.
In late July the shares of MP3.com tripled their initial
offering price, making 32-year-old CEO Michael Robertson a billionaire on paper.
MP3, which is a digital audio compression format, allows
music to be copied from a CD with no perceptible loss of quality. Because it can
be easily copied it has inspired numerous illegal websites for distributing
copyrighted music.
The controversy over MP3 hasn't been about the MP3 format
itself. As Naomi Graychase points out in her article on C-Net, the format itself
is completely legal; it's what's done with the format that is illegal. All the
copyright laws that apply to vinyl records, tapes, and CDs also apply to MP3.
Some MP3 songs have been endorsed by the music industry and
you can download these songs legally.
Unfortunately most of the legally available music is from
obscure bands. The major record labels are still uncomfortable with releasing
music in the unsecure MP3 format.
One musician who has taken the plunge has been Alanis
Morisette.
Songs from other popular musicians exist in MP3 format all
over the Internet. Unfortunately the files have been produced illegally and if
you download the songs you're essentially breaking the law.
Much to the horror of the music industry this hasn't stopped
Internet users from taking advantage of the freebie offerings.
When making copies of analog technology like cassette tapes,
more copies means poorer sound quality.
The advantage of MP3, according to Seth Sutel in a recent AP
article, is that the copy of a digital file is identical to the original. This
makes it an ideal choice for the underground music industry.
Any Internet user can download the MP3 software player for
free from MP3.com or from winamp.com.
There are other companies on the Internet that also produce MP3 players.
On the MP3.com site there is
a section for new beginners giving you detailed instructions on downloading and
playing MP3 songs.
Once you've installed the free player software on your PC,
you can download and play the free MP3 music files.
There are numerous sites out there that provide MP3 music
files. Some of the more popular sites for downloading are MP3.com/music, download.com
, listen.com.
If you'd like to have the option of playing MP3 music away
from your computer, you can purchase an actual physical MP3 player. Some of
these players, like the Rio are so small that they can fit in the palm of your
hand.
The amazing thing is that the quality of the sound is still
equivalent to a CD.
According to Sutel, the Recording Industry Association of
America sued last year to try to put a stop to the distribution of the Rio but
lost.
The Secure Digital Music Initiative, which is a collection of
more than 150 music, electronics and technology companies recently produced a
draft document dealing with the issue of standardizing the antipiracy safeguards
for portable digital audio players.
The New York Times reported in late June that neither the
record companies or the electronics manufacturers were particularly happy with
the draft legislation. In his article in July, Sutel reported that many details
have yet to be worked out, and it may be a few years before anything is in
place.
Aside from having the capacity to allow music to be copied
from a CD without a loss of quality, there are also sites out there like shoutcast
streaming technology that provides the technology to take music from the radio
and turn it into MP3 files.
This allows you to play music files directly over the
Internet without having to download the music file first. This is similar to
playing music from a radio. The software is used in conjunction with the winamp
audio player.
Webcasters like shoutcast
are covered under legislation passed in October 98. The legislation, created by
the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), controls the production of
multimedia.
In response to the MP3 technology some of the major players
in the music industry have band together and come up with another new
technology. The Globe and Mail reported in March that Sony, EMI, Universal, BMG
and Warner had joined with IBM to test the new system in February.
The new technology allows you to buy and download a CD off
the Internet. The catch is that you then need a CD burner to transfer the data
to CD in order to play it.
This sounds like a bit of a headache when you consider that
an MP3 music file is already to play the moment it's downloaded. MP3, the
companies say is a low quality version of what they intend to offer.
The Globe also reported that Microsoft had come up with a
technology similar to MP3 that is to be provided in its next generation of
Windows Media Players.
In the same article, Brian Robertson, President of the
Canadian Recording Industry Association(CRIA) estimated that $1 billion US is
lost on record labels a year worldwide. The CRIA has been trying to stop the use
of the MP3 technology by sending letters to Internet Service Providers.
What all this means is that MP3 technology has pushed the
music industry to come up with a more efficient means of digital distribution--
And it drives home the point once again that the Internet is indeed a force to
be reckoned with.
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