April 1

Music on the Web
Sun Review April 1, 2000

If you have ever tried to download music from the Web, you've probably noticed that there is a zoo of audio file formats available.

Back in 1996, one could reasonably expect that things would get sorted out and one solution, probably in the form of a Microsoft product bundled into Windows, would become the dominant media player. Unfortunately, today that is still not the case. So will we ever get a sleek, sophisticated, hassle-free means of delivering multimedia over the Web? If so, which player will be the one to realize this dream?

Real Networks (www.real.com), one of the largest and oldest streaming media companies, has led the way since 1995. The RealPlayer streams multimedia content (music, radio, movies, and so on) from a Web server over the Internet to your computer, and plays it as it's being downloaded. So when traffic is highest on the Internet, the sound will tend to cut out as it waits for the rest of the RealAudio or RealVideo file to be downloaded. Listening during off-peak hours provides the best results. Most browsers are configured to work automatically with RealPlayer when you install it. You'll need at least 16MB of RAM, 30MB of free space on your hard drive, and of course a sound card and speakers.

Real Networks virtually dominated the streaming media-player market until mid-1998 when the MP3 revolution hit. MP3 -Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) Audio Layer 3- is a technology that compresses CD-quality audio files to less than a tenth of their original size while preserving their original sound quality. That means an uncompressed audio file on a CD that takes up 1000MB of space can be condensed into a 100MB file using the MP3 format. Because MP3 files are of high quality and easily portable, the technology is increasingly used to distribute music on the Internet, enabling us to download it to our computers, or play it on portable MP3 players.

Recording companies are extremely concerned about the unlawful trading and possible sale of their copyrighted material in MP3 format on the Web. So what exactly is legal? The truth is that most MP3 files are illegal.

The exceptions are as follows:

1.Recorded works to which you personally own the copyrights.

2.Recorded works in the public domain.

While online regulation is a murky issue, the copyright law is very clear. You can legally download an MP3 to your computer and keep it there for 24 hours, but after that, the law says you must remove it. Be sure to read all copyright notices before downloading any MP3s.

To play MP3 files on your PC, you'll need a sound card, speakers, and an MP3 player. Which player is best? The jury is still out, but popular MP3 players include Microsoft Windows Media Player 7 (www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia), WinAmp (www.winamp.com), Sonique (www.sonique.com), Apple's QuickTime (www.quicktime.com) and RealJukebox (www.real.com)