Introduction
It didn't take long for "MP3" to replace
"sex" as the most searched word on the Internet, and it seems like
everyone's looking for free music. The Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) has taken this issue to court and
sued to protect the rights of artists and their royalties.
Napster and MP3.com have lost their legal battles with RIAA,
and it would seem the nails are being driven into the contraband music's
coffin.
Despite RIAA's negative attitude toward MP3 files,
they're supported by a variety of hardware and software. The first MP3 enabled
devices were little solid-state "Walkman" players. Now, many home and
car CD/DVD players recognize and play MP3 encoded music. Internet based radio
stations broadcast streaming MP3 to your computer, and many computer parts
sport MP3 features.
This MP3 Guide will shine some light on the music format
and how to start using it. There's a lot of information to cover, so this Guide
will be divided into two parts. First, we'll talk about what MP3 files are,
what makes them so cool, some ethical issues they conjure up, how they sound
compared to CD audio, where to get them, and some MP3 software. The second
Guide will cover how to get MP3 files onto CD and some tips on making CD
labels.
MP3 Anatomy & The Cool
Factor
MP3 stands for MPEG Audio Layer 3. MPEG is a compression
scheme devised by the Moving Pictures Experts Group, which converted large
video/audio files to a smaller and manageable size for the Internet. MP3
borrowed this idea, ditched the video, and dedicated itself to small sound and
music files.
An average uncompressed song, or .wav file, can take 40MB
of hard drive space. The same song with MP3 compression is about 4MB, or 1/10th
the size of the original. MP3 makes this possible by cutting away sounds which
land outside the threshold of human hearing and annoy dogs.
Obviously, it's much easier to download a 4MB file, and a
collection of them won't gobble nearly as much space as uncompressed audio.
It's also pretty slick to have music a mouse-click away when you're stuck
working on a Word document, spreadsheet, E-mail, surfing the web, or as
background music for a game. MP3s can also be organized into "play
lists" for your favorite band, mood music, or whatever.
Since MP3s are so small, it's possible to store an entire
album in very little memory. Many portable MP3 players sport 64MB and 128MB,
which is good enough for an hour or two of music. If that's not enough, memory
cards can be added or you can opt for a portable with a hard drive like the
Creative Nomad Jukebox. Just tether
your MP3 player of choice to your computer's USB port and upload your music to
it.
Some people dig MP3 files so much, they build computers
for their cars and livingroom stereos so they can have gigabytes of tunes at
their fingertips. While that's a cool and slightly geekly concept, car stereo
manufacturers are stepping foreword and making in-dash CD players which play
discs packed with MP3 music. A few home CD and DVD players also support the MP3
music format. The average blank CD holds 650MB, so it's possible to have 160
songs or 13 average length albums on one disc.
MP3's Got Issues
Peer pressure's getting the best of you and you're
interested in doing the MP3 thang, but there are some issues you need to deal
with first. RIAA would have you believe downloading music is illegal because
you're not compensating artists for their work. They would also have you
believe downloading music is a crime punishable with fines or some time in the
"big house." On the flip-side, other people insist MP3 has bypassed
the evils of the music industry and given creative power back to
musicians.
A few years ago, RIAA's stance on MP3 files was to ask
computer savvy users to buy CDs of the music they liked and delete the rest.
This would allow people to "sample" music and compensate artists for
their work. It seemed like a good idea till college campuses with fast
broadband connections to the Internet became MP3 music brothels, which was how
Napster was borne.
Shawn Flanning, a Northeastern University freshman, wrote
the original Napster code so he and others could easily find and share music
using typical browser features and IRC-type chat. The idea was a hit, and he
found enough venture capital to bring Napster to the masses; however, Napster
users typically downloaded more contraband music than they bought at the local
CD outlet.
There's plenty of music on the Internet, but most of
what's out there is copyrighted and downloaded by countless numbers of people
for free. They'll never fork out cash for a CD or pay a royalty. That's
stealing, plain 'n simple, and there's no way to sugarcoat it. If you care to
read RIAA's opinions and laws regarding downloaded music, read their web pages
on Music & The
Internet.
Some people would argue the MP3 file format has put the
power of music back in the hands of musicians, and editorials on
payola
shed light on how the music industry decides what you get to listen to on the
radio. MP3 may offer a venue for breaking into the music biz without jumping
through RIAA's hoops of fire, but both Internet-based bands and those who are
lucky enough to have earned recording contracts need to be compensated for
their work.
The best advice I can offer is to use common sense. If
you download a song or album and like it, do the artist a favor and buy the CD.
That was RIAA's original stance and it seems fair to me. Ultimately, it's your
choice and don't come looking for me when the Music Police slap some orange PJs
on your butt and toss you into a cement condo.
How Good Does It
Sound?
There's a debate surrounding the sound quality of MP3
music. Audiophiles snub them while others embrace them. Honestly, they don't
sound as good as CD audio because MP3 is a "lossy" file format, which
deletes what isn't audible to the human ear. We all know music is felt as much
as it's heard, and that's why God made woofers. MP3 also decreases the bitrate
of music, or amount of information that is played per second, to achieve its
small file size. Basically, we're talking about a serious musical
buzz-cut.
Listening to MP3 encoded music reveals a sound which
isn't as rich as CD audio. The difference is subtle and becomes less of an
issue as the bitrate of the MP3 file increases. Bass isn't quite as deep as CD
audio, mid-range frequencies tend to be a little flat, and the highs aren't as
crisp. Generally, 128kbps songs are acceptable and have a very small file size.
160kbps, 192kbps, and variable bitrate (VBR) files sound much better but have a
slightly larger file size. Personally, I stick to the 192kbps and VBR
variety.
How To Satisfy Your MP3
Desires
The Man doesn't scare you and you're not picky about how
your music sounds, so where to you get your MP3s? Some choices include search
engines like Excite, file-sharing programs,
Internet radio stations which stream MP3 music, and digging through News
Groups. Each solution has it's own advantages and disadvantages, so let's look
at each of them.
Search engines have caught onto the MP3 craze, and many
of them offer music guides, browser plug-ins for streaming music, download
areas, and lists of other web sites which offer MP3 files. From my experience,
this is the least attractive method of getting music, and the payoff for my
effort has been pretty low. Still, some people may dig it.
Napster is the
file-sharing program which made "MP3" a household world. Its power
was a huge user base and their willingness to share illegal music. It worked
like a chat program and let Napster users browse and share files among
themselves. It paved the way for a mess of clones like
SongSpy and
MyNapster, but RIAA is trying to shut
them all down or force their users to pay a subscription.
File-sharing programs, like Napster, have their good and
bad points. On the upside, it's very cool to be able to search for a specific
song and have it at your fingertips. On the downside, the file-transferring
process isn't always smooth and songs often have snaps, clicks, and pops in
them. You're also limitted by the speed (or snail-like pace) of others using
your file-sharing program and their patience. If they cut you off, your song
gets cut short as well.
Internet Radio stations stream MP3 music and are the
easiest way to listen to tunes on your computer. If you're using Microsoft's
Internet Explorer as your web browser, click the "Media" button on
the toolbar. This will open up a section on the left-hand side of the browsing
window, which sports a pretty good selection of radio stations.
Windows Media
Player includes a variety of radio stations on it's Media Guide, and
WinAmp, the free software MP3 player, has
even more stations on it's WinAmp Radio web page.
Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and WinAmp won't
drop MP3 files on your hot little hard drive, but a WinAmp plug-in called
Streamripper can grab those
Internet radio songs you're listening to and write them as permanent files.
It's fairly simple to use, but I'd suggest digging through Streamripper's
options and setting up a download directory for your music. The quality of the
music will depend on your connection to the Internet and bitrate it's being
broadcast at (higher is better), so Streamripper is best suited for those who
have a DSL, Cable, or faster connection.
News Groups are the seedy underbellies of the Internet,
and a potential gold mine for MP3 music. They work like message boards but,
instead of posting a text message, people can post files. It isn't elegant and
doesn't have search functions like Napster, but there's a ton of music if
you're not too choosy. Think of it as the "Blue Light Special" of the
MP3 realm.
Microsoft's Outlook Express has some basic News Group
features, but a stand-alone program like
Free Agent is better
suited for grabbing MP3 files. Since the News Groups were originally intended
for text messages, files which get posted are converted to binaries
(specifically, UUEncode or MIME) and must be downloaded and decoded. Free Agent
is smart enough to do all of this in the background without any pushing or
prodding.
After downloading Free Agent (or the full-figured
version, Agent), the program will need some information. The address of your
News Group server is required, which is usually listed on the support pages of
your Internet Service Provider. Most free Internet services don't have News
Group access, so you'll need a real ISP. Other info includes your Email server
and Email address, which are necessary if you need to post messages or upload
files. I'd make up something for your Email address unless you like SPAM, l33t
dudes, stalkers, and their ilk.
Free Agent will need to grab a list of all the available
News Groups and display them in the top-left pane of the browser screen.
Double-clicking on one of the groups will open a window asking if you want to
sample some message headers, download all the message headers for that group,
or subscribe to that News Group. "Message headers" are the text
messages and files inside each News Group. Downloading all the message headers
is your best bet, and they'll be displayed in the top-right pane of the browser
screen. If you download message headers again, you'll need to delete all the
ones already there (left-click one, press CTRL-A, then hit the Delete key) or
click "Online" from the tool bar and select "Get all message
headers in selected groups" on the drop-down menu. New message headers
will be displayed in red and old ones are black.
The list of message headers inside each group will look
like a mess, but you'll hit your saturation point and it'll start making sense.
A simple text message will have a single header and a body, which can be read
in the bottom pane of the browser window when you double-click on it. MP3 files
are too large to be displayed within a single header and are broken up into
multiple headers or chunks of data. Each header of a MP3 file will have the
same information (artist, song, whatever) and a fraction.
Depending on how many lines each header has and the size
of the MP3 file, the fraction will be bigger or smaller. All of the parts of
the MP3 file have to be present (1/20, 2/20, 3/20…) and, for the most
part, that isn't anything you have to worry about. Left-clicking on one part of
the song and clicking "Decode Binary Attachment" on the toolbar will
download the entire song, decode it, write it to your Agent folder, and play it
in your default software MP3 player.
Unfortunately, Free Agent has a tendency to get confused
if it sees more than one fraction in a header. If a person uploads a collection
of MP3s and lists them as 1/13, 2/13, 3/13…, Free Agent will focus on that
first fraction instead of the fraction which actually breaks up the song into
it's chunks, get confused, figure some parts are missing, and refuse to
download the file. If you're determined to grab that file, CTRL-click on each
part to highlight all of the individual parts, right-click any single part to
get a drop-down menu, click "manually decode binary attachment, then click
on "OK".
The "Subscribe" button on the toolbar will tag
News Groups with a little newspaper icon. Each time you fire up Free Agent, it
will display a list of subscribed groups so you don't always have to dig for
your favorites. If you need to look at the complete listing of News Groups,
click "Groups" on the toolbar, "Show" on the drop-down
menu, and "All Groups." Here's a list of popular MP3 news
groups:
alt.binaries.pictures.cd-covers (for scans
of CD jewel cases and discs)
alt.binaries.sounds.country.mp3
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1970s
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1980s
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.1990s
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.2000s
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.comedy
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.complete_cd
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.full_albums
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.rap-hiphop
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.rap-hiphop.full-albums
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.raggae
Free Agent sports some basic Windows navigation features
and some twists of it's own. CTRL-F will open a "Find" window, CTRL-G
and F3 will "Find Next", CTRL-clicking will select multiple files,
Shift-clicking will select a block of files, and CTRL-A will select all files.
There are many more features, so play with them and decide what's
useful.
Slick MP3 Software
Windows Media Player
can play MP3 files, but there are many more robust programs available. The most
popular MP3 player is WinAmp, which is my
personal favorite. Others include RioPort
and Media Jukebox, but they
all basically do the same thing. Any of these programs will let you listen to
MP3 music, make lists of favorite songs and albums, make your own MP3 files
from CD audio (WMA file format for Windows Media Player, which is like MP3),
and burn them to CD. Each has it's own feel, strength, and weakness, so
choosing one is more of a personal decision.
You should have enough information to get started playing
around with MP3 music. Some of my explanations aren't technically sound, but
they're close enough for the average person. Take it for what it is and have
some fun!
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