It is the cornerstone of digital audio'a medium embodied in matchbox-sized desktop players and king-sized lawsuits. It stimulates our eardrums while we are checking our e-mail or commuting.
MP3 technology has been an important factor in the history of digital audio and the modern music industry in general. It has redefined the way we experience music and has caused lawmakers to reconsider their definition of \fair use"" in relation to controversial file-sharing services.
While it is often seen as a recent innovation, MP3 technology is nearly as old as the Internet itself. In 1987, Professor Dieter Seitzer of Germany's Fraunhofer Institute began developing an algorithm that would deliver superior quality audio at a low bit rate. The result eventually became the MPEG standard, which received its German patent in 1989.
By 1993, the MPEG layer 1 codec was released, which is now primarily used to power video capture devices such as Dazzle. The second layer arrived a year later, and the third layer, MP3, received its U.S. patent in November 1996, at a time when many people were beginning to discover online audio and the Internet in general for the first time.
There are two explanations for the immense popularity of MP3 on the Internet. The first lies in the workings of the technology itself. The main principle behind MP3 is psychoacoustic masking. Psychoacoustic masking removes the sounds people are least likely to hear, compressing the audio stream. The end result is a clip about 10 times smaller than one of similar quality recorded in other audio formats, such as WAV.
The second reason for MP3's popularity is its open architecture, which makes it relatively easy to create clips in the format and to develop software players such as Winamp. The burgeoning popularity of the format created a demand for portable equipment as well, spawning an explosion of specialized devices, such as the Rio player, that allow users to either download music directly to the devices or play CDs created on a CD writer.
The format is not without its competition, the most prominent being RealAudio. Created in early 1995 as a streaming audio protocol, RealAudio's early success was fueled by its warm reception from radio news services. Due to high bandwidth and server requirements, its popularity was quickly smothered by the slimmer MP3. However, the development of RealAudio 8 has effectively challenged MP3's position as the top file format. A 2000 survey revealed that nine out of 10 listeners saw no difference between the quality of RealAudio 8 and a standard audio CD.
MP3's success quickly led to the rise of file-sharing services, the most notorious of which is Napster. Launched in 1999, it sent shockwaves through the Internet community with the prospect of having an unsurpassed quantity of music files at one's fingertips. Campus networks quickly became taxed as hordes of students jammed servers with frenzied downloading. The recording industry cried foul and sued Napster for copyright infringement. Despite constant threats, Napster still exists, but as a subscription-based service. This has eliminated its initial novelty, the unrestrained distribution of music to anyone with Internet access.
UW-Madison students like sophomore Dana Mattice have a generally positive perception of digital music based on its economy.
""The industry boosts CD prices up way beyond production costs,"" Mattice said. ""[Getting music] online is like a test drive; if the artist has enough good songs you'll be influenced to go out and get the full album.""
However, students like senior Scott Oakes realize the negative effect file-sharing has on the salaries of struggling, obscure artists, yet they are skeptical of the effects government legislation of the services may have on civil liberties.
""The artists who write and record music have a right to regulate their music,"" Oakes said. ""On the other hand, the consumers who purchase music should have the right to do as they choose with their music.""
The future of online music lies in the development of Napster alternatives such as Gnutella, Further, Rootnode Live and WinMX. RNL has found favor with collectors of live recordings who can download from the service guilt-free knowing that all bands with tracks on RNL have authorized the downloading of their live recordings.
While WinMX has a constantly changing set of users (and therefore available files), it is an excellent source for a diverse assortment of music in addition to full episodes of popular animated television programs such as South Park and Dragon Ball Z.
So, while not everybody agrees on the role of digital audio, it is still quite popular for listening to, sharing, and creating music.
