A Little Net Music

Digital audio files found on CDs are usually very large. But MP3, a file format that shrinks the audio data while preserving the quality, has made the distribution of near-CD quality music as easy as a click of your mouse.

MP3 enables you to download songs quickly. A minute of music in MP3 format is about 1 Mb, so your average pop tune may be under 4 Mb. With a dial-up account, you can download a song in a few minutes; with a broadband connection, it only takes seconds.

Hear it Now

To play MP3 files you need an MP3 player, which comes in two varieties: portable players and software players. The portable players are hardware devices like an Apple iPod. Software players are programs you install on your computer. PC users may already have Windows Media Player. If not, you can download it free from Microsoft. Two other excellent programs are iTunes, from Apple and WinAmp. By the way, if you need help, read our step-by-step instructions for downloading software.

Once you have the player installed, it's time to listen to some music. A good place to start is at MTV.com, where you'll find thousands of songs available for downloading. After you download a song, you can play it as many times as you want, and even e-mail it to friends as an attachment to your message. If you buy a portable player, you can transfer songs from your computer to the player for music on-the-go.

Apple's iTunes software is designed to work with its wildly popular iPod. While it supports MP3 files, the iPod player works optimally with AAC files, an audio file format proprietary to Apple. If you buy and download songs from Apple's online music store, they will be AAC files.

A good resource for locating specific songs is the Lycos Music search engine, which claims to index tens of thousands of songs. Try searching for "Sinatra" and see what you get!

Copyright Issues

You should be aware that some people take songs from CDs, convert them to MP3 files, then post them on the Web or share them via pier-to-pier networks. This practice has record executives not only fuming, but filing lawsuits against the most flagrant violators. Why? Because it violates copyright laws. Free music means that neither the songwriter, performer nor the record company make any money. You can see why MP3 is challenging the status quo.

Having said that, most of the MP3 songs you will find online are perfectly legal, because the copyright holder and the performer have granted their permission. In fact many young musicians see MP3 as a wonderful way to get exposure for their music while eliminating the middlemen--the record companies and music stores. Even established performers make some of their new tunes available as MP3s on their websites. Many online music stores sell individual songs that can be downloaded for under $ 1.00 USD.

While MP3 may eventually be replaced by other formats--Microsoft has developed WMA and Apple has AAC--online music distribution is here to stay, offering music lovers a symphony of songs at unbeatable prices.

Last update: Jan 20, 2010