I have been embroiled in work so much so that the weekends seem like a sacred time. While I wish I was spending my sacred time trolling the web and writing witty ditties for you, my dear reader, in actuality, my sacred time has been spent doing my fourth favorite activity: sleep. (You can guess at the other three ;-)!) But, enough of that, in mid-February I planned to write about my newest internet addiction:  napster.com. Of course, now in late March, universities have banned napster as a "bandwidth" hog, the music industry is suing napster, and they are fodder for every major news outlet (I have read about napster in Newsweek, the New York Times, and the Washington Post). It seems that everyone knows about napster. Nonetheless, I am going to sing its glories. If you aren't napster convert yet, read on. As a bonus and to try and ingratiate myself to you for my absence, this is an extra long column that includes a whole primer on the MP3s. If you are already a napster-ite and MP3 head, stop here and pat yourself on the back for being an early adopter. OK, still here? Great. First, let's get some definitions out of the way. The term, MP3, refers to a digitally encoded form of music that can be read and played on a computer. The amazing thing about MP3s is that they deliver CD quality music in a hugely compressed format so that songs and even full albums don't eat up all of your disk space. And when I say, CD quality music, I mean CD quality music. When I pop on the head phones and start my MP3s, I can't tell the difference between my work computer and sitting in my living room listening to my favorite CDs. To play MP3s you need a digital music player. Most computers have a digital music player loaded on to it when you buy it. In windows the most common is the RealPlayer. You can check it out at  www.real.com. There are lots of other digital music players available for free on the web, but monkeying around with the computer player will be more meaningful later. You can also get portable MP3 players, which you'll definitely want to have once you become an addict like me. To convert your current CDs to MP3s, you need a program that "rips" you CD. The best one I have found is the RioPort Audio Manager. You can get it at  www.rioport.com. Go grab it for free. To get started converting your CDs to MP3s, just launch the program, drop your CD into you CD player and it will convert you CDs into MP3s. It's interface is easy to use, but be warmed: it takes a while if you have limited memory (as I do). But it is worth the wait. Here's a hit: I usually spend my lunch hours converting CDs to MP3s. One CD takes about 55 minutes so it is a perfect fit. So, now you're hooked up with an MP3 player on your computer, you're ripping your own CDs, it's time for napster. Napster is a downloadable program that goes on your computer and when you are on line it connects you to thousands of other music fans around the world with hundreds of thousands of songs that you can download. My favorite song from Flashdance, "On My Own" sung by Irene Cara, was stuck on vinyl and I couldn't quite figure out how to hook up the CD player, VCR, and turntable so I was without this great song. One day on napster, I type in On My Own, and viola. I have an MP3 of On My Own. Of course after listening to it a few times, I realized that what I really need is the complete soundtrack to Fame to truly revel in my teenage roots. So I click on over to CDNow.com and buy the whole album. Isn't the internet great? Now, of course, the music industrys opposition to napster is the same as my mother's opposition to pre-marital sex: why would anyone buy the cow if you can get the milk for free. (Or more elaborately, artists, studios, songwriters, and everyone involved in making music won't get paid if people can get the songs by trading them over napster). However, my personal experience is that a couple of songs by a new artist or an old favorite and I am clicking my way over to CDNow.com and buying the complete album. Moral issues aside, MP3 technology is the most incredible thing I have ever experienced. Load songs on you MP3 player and you have created your very own "mixed tape". Remember those? When I was a teenager, those were the currency by which we measured affection. Making a "mixed tape" for your girlfriends was a sign of devotion and required great thought and care to find the music that expressed your truly individual relationship. Frankly, the music industry survived the cassette tapes that marked the earlier years. Now there is a way that we can create our own "mixed tape" faster and easier as grown ups. So hop on napster and be sure to send me your handle so I can check out what you are listening too! Julie
View the Archives
*Do you have great ideas for Word to the Wired? Feel free to email them to me at Julie@technodyke.com. You can also reach me on ICQ: 45820273. |
