"Advances in Converging
Audio/Video and the Internet"
October 1999

 Welcome back to school. Much has happened in the world of mass communication since last semester, but we’ll focus on some advances in the convergence of audio recording and television with the Internet. This month we’ll look at MP3, and next month we’ll examine what’s happening in Internet video.
 MP3 (for MPEG-1, Audio Layer 3) is compression software that shrinks audio files to less than a tenth of their original size. Originally developed in 1987 in Germany by University of Erlangen computer scientist Dieter Seitzer in conjunction with the Fraunhofer Institut Integrierte Schaltungen, it began to take off in the early 1990s as more users began to hook up to the Net with increasingly faster modems. This open source (freely downloaded) software permits users to download recorded music, and it is available at sites such as http://www.MP3.com and http://www.MP3.box.sk. So popular has MP3 become, that in July, 1999 it surpassed “sex” as the most frequently searched-for term on the Web and, in the first six months of that year, nearly 3 billion MP3 files were downloaded from the Net, or 17 million every day.
 In addition to “brandless” MP3, users can access commercial versions of the software such as RealJukebox and MusicMatch which offer additional features like selectable levels of audio quality, the capacity to turn music from home CDs into computer files, and compatibility with other audio streaming technology such as Liquid Audio, a2b, MS Audio, and G2. When RealNetworks made JukeBox available in May, 1999, for example, 350,000 users downloaded the software in two and a half days, the fastest download of free software in Internet history. In either its open source or commercial format, MP3 is controversial and the furor surrounding this convergence of digital and recording technologies is captured by the New York Times’ Jon Pareles:

 For utopians, MP3 is a way to liberate music from the clutches of gatekeepers and profiteers, and perhaps to return music to its intangible essence. But the recording business sees MP3 as a Pandora’s box of copyright destruction, unleashing anarchy and piracy while robbing musicians of royalties and record labels of capital.

In effect, both sides are correct. There’s bound to be serious legal scuffling between people who own copyrights and people who believe in the hacker credo that information wants to be free.

Yet recorded music is considerably more than a corporate revenue source, and the implications of digital distribution go far beyond the particulars of software and gadgets and royalty collection. For listeners, music has never been about its physical form, but about what’s in the grooves or magnetic particles or digital bits; it’s the information, not the plastic. Digital distribution can turn that sentiment into a reality. And that shift could alter the way music is made, released, sold, stored, and valued. 

The crux of the problem for recording companies is that they sell music “in its physical form,” while MP3 permits music’s distribution in a non-physical form. First conceived of as a means of allowing independent bands and musicians to post their music online where it might attract a following, MP3 became a headache for the recording industry when music from the name artists they controlled began appearing on MP3 sites, making piracy, the illegal recording and sale of copyrighted material, of high quality recordings a relatively simple task. 

Not only could users listen to their downloaded music from their hard drives, but they could make their own CDs from MP3 files and play those discs wherever and whenever they wished.  Matters were made even worse for the recording companies when manufacturers such as Diamond Multimedia introduced portable MP3 players, freeing downloaded music even from users’ computers.

Rather than fight MP3, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing all of the United States’ major labels, has responded to its threat with a technological solution. At the end of 1998, the RIAA announced the formation of the Secure Music Digital Initiative (SDMI)—code-named The Madison Project—in conjunction with IBM and more than 100 other music, consumer electronic, and information technology companies. July of 1999 the RIAA announced final approval of SDMI software containing screening technology. The RIAA assumption is that this new digital audio standard will permit “legal” users, for a fee, to download complete albums (including lyrics and artwork) in under 10 minutes. Users can then transfer the audio to CDs or listen on their computers.

Sony Music was the first of the major recording companies to distribute its music in a purely digital form. In June, 1999 it joined forces with Digital On-Demand (DOD) to make most of its catalogue available online for downloading to either CD, DVD, or mini-disc. Buyers simply visit a record or department store that has a Sony-DOD kiosk, make their choice of album and format, and, a few minutes later, after paying no more than they would have for an in-store disc, walk out with a digital recording. In Sony’s view, it benefits—convenient, affordable downloading might limit some online piracy. Retail record sellers benefit—they do not have to devote floor space to stock thousands of titles, some of which are rarely requested, and they earn profit from sales that might otherwise have been made online from vendors like CDnow and Amazon.com. And listeners benefit—the albums they want are never out of stock and they do not have to wait two or three days for delivery of an ordered disc (and they avoid shipping and handling charges as well). Both DOD and Sony argue that most if not all of the big labels will have to join them for digital delivery of recorded music to become successful. They began the service unilaterally because, they reasoned, somebody had to make “the leap of faith.”

Many observers, however, feel that the recording industry may be too late in entering the online music field to effectively shape its development. Steve Grady, vice president of marketing for Emusic.com, said, “To go back and do something different, to take away flexibility, to put some rules around it, is pretty hard to do on the Internet. It’s hard to shove a technology down consumers’ throats on the Internet.” There is evidence that Grady is correct as, increasingly, well-known musical artists are embracing MP3 as a way to by-pass the recording companies, reward fans, and spur sales. For example, the Grateful Dead encourages the downloading and swapping of its live concert recordings (as long as the music is not sold for profit); Public Enemy releases albums online through AtomicPop.com in advance of their appearance in stores; and, They Might Be Giants has released MP3-only albums through GoodNoise.com.

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