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THE 10,000-SONG
QUESTION: GONE MP3 YET?
By Bill Beggs Jr.
You’re vaguely aware of the tiny devices. Joggers and gym rats have
them strapped around their arms. Your kids talk about them constantly.
And on the news, you hear about the latest wave of lawsuits from
the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), targeting
something called “illegal file sharing.”
And the question you keep asking yourself is, What the heck is an
MP3 player?
First, the basics. MP3 stands for MPEG Audio Layer-3, an audio compression
technology that was patented in the late 1980s by a German company
named Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. Like the songs on a compact disc
(CD), MP3 music exists in digital form—it is nothing more than a
stream of 1’s and 0’s. The MP3 process takes digitalization one
step further, however, by compressing it into a more manageable
size. While a three-minute song on a CD might use 30 MB of computer
memory, the same song in MP3 format would only take three MB.
What’s the advantage of a smaller file size? First, the players
can shrink accordingly (the smallest MP3 units are no bigger than
toothpick dispensers). Second, the small file sizes make Internet
sharing more practical—much to the chagrin of the RIAA.
That’s not to say that everybody with an MP3 player is breaking
the law. On the contrary, songs in MP3 format are available legally
on a growing number of Web sites. The first was Apple’s iTunes (www.apple.com/itunes),
which charges 99 cents a song. But now Wal-Mart offers downloads
for 88 cents a song (http://musicdownloads.walmart.com), and others
will follow suit.
Once you’ve downloaded an MP3 file from the Internet, you’ll need
a special device to play it. Your choices include Apple’s line of
iPods, plus units from Philips, Sony, Rio, RCA and others. Most
of the units plug directly into a computer’s USB port, for easy
transfer.
Ultimate Electronics in Richmond Heights stocked models from Philips,
Rio and RCA, at prices ranging from $88 to $170. At the Apple store
in Westfield Shoppingtown West County, the anodized aluminum, pastel-hued
Mini iPod was available for $249. It has a capacity of 1,000 songs,
based on durations of about four minutes each.
At the Apple store in Westfield Shoppingtown West
County, the anodized aluminum, pastel-hued Mini iPod
was available for $249. (Actual Size) |
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Raymond Song, 22, a part-timer at Best Buy in Richmond Heights,
has compiled 17,000-plus songs in the last few years. But Song (yes,
his real name) has never owned a CD player. Song emphasizes that
MP3 audio is “a little less than CD quality,” although most people
can’t tell the difference.
Song says models by Rio are “great for running or working out.”
Some of the players can store thousands of tunes. These include
the much-ballyhooed iPods, which range from four GB to 40 GB: from
up to 1,000 songs to as many as 10,000. The Mini was $249 (same
price as the Apple store), but was only available from www.bestbuy.com.
The other units were plentiful; the 40 GB unit was priced at $499.
One downside: listening to MP3s in the car isn’t as easy as talking
on the phone. This requires an adapter for a cassette deck, or a
unit that works on an FM frequency.
And remember, after you take the MP3 plunge, don’t mourn your collections
of vinyl albums and CDs. Someone out there is looking for them on
eBay.
Bill Beggs Jr. is a St. Louis-based freelance writer.
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