Mp3 And The Music Industry Essays - Digital Audio,

Mp3 And The Music Industry Imagine a world where you did not go to the music store and buy a CD. You would have $15 extra in your pocket every time. Now you ask why would I not go out and buy CDs? I like to hear groups I like. The answer is simple. There is something new out there in the world that makes it possible for you to never buy a CD again. There is only one catch: its illegal. Illegal in the sense that you are committing copyright infringement every time you participate in this new format. Mp3 is this file format. Ever since CD drives were put into computers, people have recorded songs into their computers to listen to while they worked. The quality was decent to horrible, depending on the format. Then along comes this mp3 format. What makes this format special is the fact that it keeps the quality of the song from when it is recorded in. This near-CD quality is one of the reasons that this format is flourishing. The main reason though, is that this format also compresses the file size to a tenth of its original size. Consider this: a recorded song on a computer can run anywhere from 30-60 megabytes (or mb). Compare that to any regular computer file, regardless of its format or use (IE word processor, CD player, database) which runs from 10 kilobytes (1,000 kilobytes (kb) = 1 mb) to 1 or 2 mb. A mp3 file can compress this huge 30-60 mb file to a small and manageable 3 to 4 mb. What all this means is that you have now gone from a huge low quality music track to a small, high quality, and very manageable file with your favorite song on it. This is the appeal of mp3. Mp3 was not supposed to be a big deal. It was originally developed as a file format that was able to compress files. David Weiss of Musician goes on to explain. A standard that was originally developed as a simple storage application, mp3, didnt begin its electronic life suggesting that it would eventually put Billy Idol and the Beastie Boys on the same web page. Mp3 is short for MPEG-1, layer 3, and was developed by the Moving Picture Coding Experts Group (MPEG), an international consortium of companies and committees, between 1988 and 1992mp3 was created with an eye toward saving precious space and time during downloads. (Weiss, 40) Mp3 is a current hot topic because of the copyright infringement laws out there. The core of the battle boils down to this: People have taken these mp3 songs and put them on the internet for anyone to download. They cannot be tracked and there are no fees charged. People who download these files can play them for free, as many times as they want. The near-CD quality of these files and the fact that they are free has made it where millions of files are downloaded and no money being generated to the record labels. The distribution of these files is the part that is illegal. The actual possession of the files and the format is okay. It is only alright to have the file if you have the CD or cassette yourself. The record labels are hard at work to try to stop this distribution network, but it seems that they are too late. The recording industry is trying hard to end what it sees as a threat. The Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, has begun an offensive to shut down web sites that have mp3 files on them. They have sent cease-and-desist letters to operators and have taken legal action by filing lawsuits. Russ DeVault of the Atlanta Constitution writes It [RIAA] also launched a national campaign designed to scare college students away from mp3 piracy and persuade universities to take a stronger stance against pupils who use their campus accounts to swap these files (DeVault, E; 02). The RIAA has implemented this program that deals mostly with college students. Colleges across the country offer their own internet access. The record industry has not only tried to go after web sites, but also after their own bands.