MP3 files are fairly small and provide excellent quality sound. All you need to use an MP3 file is a free MP3 player installed on your computer with speakers. Sounds simply and easy. It is.
So what's the catch?
The recordings are not necessarily royalty-free. The recording industry is afraid. Very afraid. They should be. First of all, musical artists no longer require the power of a large record label behind them to cut and distribute new songs. They can record songs, convert them to MP3 and use the 'Net to get potential fans - and buyers - to find and listen to their music. But that is not what scares them.
It's us. The big issue in, ahem, countries that do protect copyrighted materials, is that you can copy tracks from your music CD to an MP3 file and send the thing over the Internet to your cousin stationed in Antarctica who can listen to it. Heck you can mail to the whole clan back in the Ozarks. One CD,
MP3 file size ia approximately one minute of music or several minutes of speaking per megabyte. A normal song which is 2-4 MB in MP3 file might be 30 meg in WAV format. With today's cheap enormous hard disks, re-writable CD Drives (650 megabytes per CD!) and ZIP drives you can back up a large part of your music selection electronically.
Where to start
www.mp3.com, of course. There you will find free MP3 stuff
Hunting for more MP3
Part of the fun of using MP3 technology is searching the Net for new music. MP3.com is a great starting point but here are some other sites to check out:
Making your first MP3 file - Step by Step
What's the latest in digital? What's the latest in Music? DAM it! Now available, DAM Compact Discs include both MP3 and standard CD audio formats for all tracks. DAM (Digital Automatic Music) CDs sometimes include special versions and releases not available by download or in music stores on regular albums.
What is so great about DAM? This technology enables artists to take full control of record sales and get a larger share of the profits for sales of their own recording - away from the record label companies.
MP3.com is actually in the business of producing, marketing and selling CD's for artists, who pay no upfront costs and split the revenue with MP3.com. Record you own album and convert it to MP3 format. Sign a cancel-able contract with MP3.com, decide on aprice for your CD ($5.99 to $10), pick one song which you will give away as past of the promotion, pay nothing. Just wait for the money to roll in. That is the power of the Internet.
Kilen Matthews in an international Internet, e-commerce and Y2K consultant. kilenm@bigfoot.com
