Killer Clones and the MP3

Illustration by Melinda Beck

Just over a year ago, this weird little thing called “MP3” appeared on the Internet to strike terror into the hearts of music-industry executives everywhere. For those of you still using IBM Selectrics, MP3 allows sound files to be scrunched to a size at which they can easily be zapped across the Net. It became a simple matter to “rip” a song from a CD, crunch it into MP3 format, and make it available for anyone in the wide world of the Internet to copy.

Problem was, the theory was far more sound than the practice. Searching the Net for specific songs was an arduous task, and, even with the small file sizes, downloads over dial-up modems required far more patience than Net surfers are accustomed to.

In the ensuing year, a few technological advances have changed all that. Listening to music online is now a rather straightforward process, only slightly more complex than listening to music on a CD player or radio. But there are still a number of options, with more on the way — some of which won’t even require a computer. Here are a few:

Napster

Anyone who reads Newsweek is aware of the legal imbroglio engulfing Napster, so we’ll skip that part and get to the good stuff: how to grab any song you want — free.

Like the best high concepts, Napster is simple. Thousands of people all over the world store MP3-format songs on their computers. Napster lists all of those files and allows you, the home listener, to copy any song from someone else’s computer to your own. If you get the sudden urge to hear “Super Bon Bon” by Soul Coughing or Todd Rundgren’s “Bang on the Drum All Day” or the entire new Eminem album (which was Napsterized before it was even released), you can have the song on your hard drive in minutes.

Step one: Download Napster software (free) from www.napster.com and register on the site. You have now joined what Napster warmly refers to as its “community.” In fact, the only thing most members of this community have in common is the desire to get free stuff. (To be fair, the Napster community isn’t entirely greed-driven. Once you’re registered, you may share your own MP3 files with your fellow Napster communists.)

Step two: Locating songs is almost effortless. Use Napster’s search function by typing in all or part of the song title and/or artist you’re looking for. After a few seconds, numerous copies of the song appear, listed on your screen. Napster lists file sizes and recording quality (or “bit rate”) in kilobytes per second; higher numbers mean better quality, but better quality means bigger files, longer download times and more space consumed on your hard drive. The Napster window also shows the “line speed” of the computer from which you’ll be downloading. Is it running a supercharged T3 line, a not-quite-as-fast but still highly caffeinated DSL line — or a somnolent 56K modem?

Not all fast lines are created equal. Napster also reveals “ping” time, in milliseconds. Okay, this is real techno-geeky: “Ping” is the time it takes a “packet” of information to get from one computer to another and back again. Quick ping times are, naturally, preferable.

Step three: And that’s about it. Pick the file you want to download, double-click it, and you’re sharing the music, man.

Mac users note: Napster is currently Windows-only. While Napster develops a Mac version, there’s a fine clone called Macster, available at www.macster.com.

My.mp3.com

Napster is under constant legal assault, but so far it has persevered. Not so for this Web site, a service of the pioneering and pugnacious MP3.com. My.MP3.com allowed users to “beam” their own CDs into a database, which could be accessed with a password. The idea: You could listen to your private CD collection online from any computer. The problem was, the “beaming” process was not as Star Trek–ish as it sounds. MP3.com simply loaded a few thousand user-owned commercial CDs onto its servers, without any permission from or royalty payments to the recording artists. “Beaming” a CD was like plugging a dollar into a jukebox.

Not surprisingly, they got sued — by no less than Sir Paul McCartney! Earlier this year, a judge ordered the My.MP3.com service to remove its commercial-CD database. My.Mp3.com now is merely a customizable version of the MP3.com site, allowing users to pick their favorite tunes from the site’s massive collection of unsigned bands. But MP3.com has vowed to keep up the good fight, so My.MP3.com is worth checking in with every so often.

MP3 players: software

Once you’ve downloaded an MP3, you need a special piece of software to hear the thing. There are dozens. Check www.dailymp3.com/players.html to see a list. For Windows machines, the industry standard is Winamp (www.winamp.com), which is still free. For Mac users, there’s SoundJam (www.soundjam.com), which carries a $39.95 price tag. For free, there’s the stripped-down SoundApp (www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~franke/SoundApp/). All offer the ability to organize MP3 songs into “playlists,” allowing you to listen for hours at a time.