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Behind the Music
What you should know about digital music formats, players and the controversy
By Eric Griffith with Gregg Keizer
When
MP3 music files started making waves on the Web a little more than a year
ago, they were supposed to revolutionize the way we listen to music. Pundits
predicted CDs would go the way of the vinyl record. Instead we'd create
music mixes of downloaded songs that could be stored on portable players.
But a year after the first MP3 players shipped (the Diamond Rio premiered
in November 1998), this digital music format hadn't taken the planet by
storm.
Then Napster came along.
The controversy about sharing music files via the Internet using this utility is now headline news. It's arguably the greatest debate to surround the Internet, as it pits freewheeling music lovers against artists and music industry representatives who feel they're getting robbed. (For the lowdown on the controversy, see the story at right). The haranguing and lawsuits between the camps grow more heated each day, with no clear victor in sight.
Well, there's one victor, for now: us. Despite the raging battle, we are the beneficiaries of this digital music Golden Age. New computers sporting DVD drives, 3-D sound cards with surround-sound speakers and free tools like RealAudio are the modern-day equivalent of the family stereo, a jukebox, a radio with unlimited channels, maybe even a music production system—all right out of the box.
Yet there's a lot more to the digital audio revolution than just MP3 files and Napster. To understand your online listening options, you need to know about the music formats, the players and, of course, the controversy.
Music to your eyes
To hear—and see—the multimedia smorgasbord contained on the Web, you must equip your computer with a software program to play the two primary types of online multimedia, streaming files and discrete files.
Streaming files play as they download: There's no waiting. Well, there's a little waiting—streaming players usually "buffer" a file, meaning they store some of the data before playing it to ensure smoother playback. But the wait is seconds vs. minutes or hours. The downside of streaming is whatever you're listening to could lose its stream, and would have to be re-buffered before it starts playing again.
Two popular streaming audio and video formats are duking it out: RealMedia from RealNetworks ( www.realnetworks.com ) and Microsoft's Windows Media ( www.windowsmedia.com ) .RealNetworks has been streaming media for a long time, but Microsoft is quickly catching up.
Discrete files are stored on your hard drive before you play them. These include most MP3 tunes and some video clips and sound effects. We say "most" because many companies, including RealNetworks and Nullsoft ( www.shoutcast.com ), can make MP3s stream.
MP3 is a compressed audio format, up to 12 times smaller than sound in a "raw" format, such as a WAV file. An MP3 of Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf," for instance, takes up 3MB, small when compared with the WAV version at 29MB. MP3s are not only small, but they sound almost as good as a CD.
WMA files, which can be streamed, are competition for discrete MP3 files. They're smaller and sound better.
One easy, legal way to create discrete files is to make them from the songs on an audio CD that you own. This is called "ripping." The reverse, putting music from your hard drive onto a CD using a CD-recordable drive, is called "burning." Some software, such as Real-Jukebox ( www.realjukebox.com ) and MusicMatch Jukebox ( www.musicmatch.com ), do both. They'll even record your favorite songs to a portable MP3 player.
Play for pay
The other way to get discrete files is to download them from Web sites such as dmusic ( www.dmusic.com ), EMusic ( www.emusic.com ) and MP3.com.
Of course, most music files from major artists that are available for download aren't free. Many sites are trying to make their money by selling you the best songs, one track at a time. Tracks are usually about $1 each.
Liquid Audio ( www.liquidaudio.com ) is the leader when it comes to thwarting piracy—its MP3 files bear a "genuine music" label, so consumers know if a song is legal or pirated. You can also get a Liquid Audio plug-in that works with the RealPlayer. AT&T's a2b music ( www.a2bmusic.com ) is similar, but its player only plays back music encoded in the a2b format.
EMI, BMG and Sony have announced plans to sell downloadable music this year. All will be partnering with companies like Liquid Audio to prevent piracy after the initial download.
This is just the beginning of the digital music revolution. As court decisions, technology and listeners' needs rocket forward into 2001, change will be the only constant. But don't miss out: Get an audio player for your computer, download some tunes and get into the act.
For more on digital music, go to www.accessmagazine.com .
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RealNetworks
Windows Media
Nullsoft's SHOUTcast
RealJukebox
MusicMatch Jukebox
dmusic
EMusic
Liquid Audio
a2b music