MP3: Music on the Web News & Views Software Review

by Mike Hendry Originally published in News & Views September 1999 issue. Copyright 1999 STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter. For permission to reprint this article, contact the Managing Editor.

It's too hot to think, so let's have some fun with this column (hopefully it will have cooled off some by the time you are reading this). There's a relatively new audio compression scheme that's poised to take off. It has important implications in the commercial music industry, but could also be important to web page and multimedia development if the proper authorities (e.g., Microsoft and Netscape) support it. The technology MPEG1 layer 3 (MP3) compression uses advanced algorithms to compress wave (WAV) files to less than ten percent of their original size. Jeeves always explained that his solutions to Bertie Wooster’s predicaments were based on the "Psychology of the Individual." MP3 is based on the "Physiology of the Individual" (OK, it’s a stretch). MP3 compression processes digital audio signals according to the complex response of the human ear. For example, there is a certain recovery time inherent in our hearing. If a soft sound occurs during a loud sound, we don’t hear it; therefore, compression removes it. A typical pop song, uncompressed CD-quality, is about 30-50 MB. After MP3 compression, that same song is less than 3-5 MB. These songs are now much more easily handled, downloaded, and stored. The software The popularity of MP3 music is on the rise. For the PC, there are MP3 players, CD-Rippers, compressors, and converters. Visit www.mp3.com for information on MP3 and the available software. One of the most popular MP3 players is Winamp (see Figure 1). Figure 1 Winamp is similar to the CD player in Windows, but fancier. It plays MP3 songs on your computer, and can also convert them to uncompressed wave files for burning onto a standard audio CD. CD-Rippers can extract the digital audio from an audio CD and place it on your computer as a wave file. Winamp or another compressor can then convert it to MP3. Until recently, MP3 has been a way for up and coming bands to gain exposure; www.mp3.com distributes this type of music for free. Other sites are starting to sell music from well-known artists over the Internet. For example, www.emusic.com sells music for immediate download. One song typically costs $0.99, and an entire album costs $8.99. The selection is limited at this time, but as the hardware develops, look for this to increase dramatically in the near future. The hardware Portable MP3 players are now hitting the market. About the size of a beeper and costing from $130, they store approximately an hour of music in built-in memory, on flash memory cards (like those used in digital cameras), or on tiny hard drives. Since the music is completely electronic, it will not skip, and will stand up to the typical abuse of jogging, bicycling, and other sports activities (although probably not swimming). You can connect it to your PC and download music to it. You are legally allowed to transfer music from CDs that you have purchased for your own private use, or you can download music. Several companies, from AT&T to Sony, are gearing up to distribute mainstream music electronically. Will they pass the savings on to us? I have my doubts. But this is the future of the music industry. Back to us So how does this affect us, besides all the fun we just had? Streaming audio has probably captured the Internet for web multimedia (though it never seems to work for me). But if you do any in-house or CD-ROM multimedia for sales or training, you know that uncompressed audio can consume significant resources. Imagine cutting that by 90% or more. It’s worth looking into, and pressuring the big software companies to support it in their products. Note: As with any technology, this can be used for good or for evil. Just as it promises great advances in music commerce and multimedia development, some underground elements are using it to pirate and illegally distribute copyrighted works. This column does not condone the unauthorized use of copyrighted material. Please use caution if you download music from the Internet.

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Posted September 22, 1999 (tck)