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I want my MP3 The record industry, legal experts and performers and their fans struggle with the implications of the digital music revolution Sunday, March 12, 2000 By Tracy Collins, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
There were two music revolutions in 1992. The first was led by a slight, oily-haired guitarist from Seattle named Kurt Cobain, whose band Nirvana sang "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and connected with a generation disenfranchised by the record industry. As happens so often in revolutions, though, the leader was soon dead, and "the cause" was embraced by its targets, who found a way to harness grunge's energy for their own gain, riding it until it fizzled out.
The second revolution was receiving far fewer headlines, led as it was on one side by computer nerds from Seattle with whom Cobain wouldn't be caught dead. On its second front, 10 time zones away, a brilliant Italian named Leonardo Chiariglioni was harnessing the minds of scientists and businessmen who wouldn't be caught dead with Cobain. Together, they were changing music forever, without ever picking up a guitar or wearing flannel.
Fast-forward eight years and the record industry is still struggling to fight this revolution, waging war in courtrooms while buying time to figure out how to retain profits, as digital music delivery changes the business. They've even turned to Chiariglioni for help.
Meanwhile, millions of digital music files are exchanged daily on the Internet, many of them illegally. As the recording industry works to regain control, billions of dollars are changing hands in an effort to harness this digital music thing, even if few can agree whether today's smart business move is tomorrow's dry Internet oil well.
The new technology is waiting for its first break-out artist
And some experts question whether anyone will be able to control music again.
Digital beat
It started, really, with the compact disc.
These wondrously light, tough-to-ruin storage mediums were introduced to widespread use in the music industry in 1983. In addition to their durability -- they're nearly impossible to break -- they have a higher capacity, allowing artists to fit more music on a disc than they could a vinyl album. And the music is encoded in digital form that the laser of a CD player will translate into music, just as a diamond stylus translated analog music on albums.
The CD offers a low-cost way to transport large amounts of data of any kind. So it was only natural that computers would begin to employ CD drives for things like software applications and interactive games. After all, it would take 464 floppy discs to deliver the data stored on one CD.
As computers became more powerful in the late '80s, developers began to take advantage of their audio-visual capabilities. Programmers at Microsoft in Seattle and IBM in Armonk, N.Y., began working together on ways to easily transmit audio files. They came up with a format called "waveform" (WAV), which is now the standard for Windows-based personal computers. Apple Computers developed a different format to use with its Macintosh computers.
With audio formats in place and CD drives becoming standard equipment on computers, playing music on those drives was inevitable. The translation of music to computer formats was equally inevitable.
Enter Chiariglioni. With companies lined up ready to take full advantage of computers' multimedia capabilities, the flamboyant native of Almese, Italy, founded MPEG -- the Moving Pictures Expert Group -- in 1988. This group of scientists, programmers and industry executives wanted to set benchmark standards for the delivery of this information.
In 1992, the group set forth its first set of standards. Its primary concern was the compression and play of video -- after all, Chiariglioni worked for the research arm of the Italian telecommunications industry -- and the first of these snippets to get widespread distribution were actually called MPEGs, after the committee. But MPEG also delivered audio with that video, arriving at a standard called MP3, which is short for MPEG Audio Layer-III. It's high-fidelity, CD-quality music at highly compressed sizes.
That's the last time we'll expect you to know what it means. But it means a lot to your music future.
How it works
The MP3 standard factors music compression in two ways. First, some data is discarded, in the form of the extreme highs and lows of a song. No one but your dog is hearing those outer ranges anyhow, but for the sake of music purists, they're left in standard digital music files anyway. MP3 cuts them out, as well as some overlapping sound waves. Then, the file is compressed through an algorithmic formula. All told, it's a compression ratio of about 12-to-1.
There are variables within these compression steps, related to the equipment upon which you'll play your music. For example, if you wanted to play the music on a stereo with an MP3-playing component -- or even a computer with expensive, high-end speakers -- you want to discard less of the data because those speakers will be able to output a fuller range of sound. Clip off too much, and the music will sound choppy, because you literally will have created range gaps in the sound file. If you are using a portable player or speakers with a smaller output range, you can compress the files more.
The net effect? Take a song like Sting's "Brand New Day." As a standard Mac or PC audio file, it is 64.5 megabytes. Turn it into a high-end MP3, and it's 10.2mb. Turn it into an MP3 that will play perfectly well on portables and most home computers and the size shrinks to 4.8mb. And only the most discriminating ears will be able to hear a difference.
"It's clear that the combination of digital compression and the Web is an extraordinary mixture," Chiariglioni said in a recent interview. "What happens today for music will happen for film. The only limit is the fantasy of people. This was signaled by the development of MP3."
Compact delivery
We've given you a science lesson to let you know what MP3s are. Now, we'll explain why they have Chiariglioni and millions of others so excited.
The magic of MP3 is that it's a simple, compact way to deliver quality audio files online.
With today's 56k modems -- and even with cable modems -- it's impractical to download standard sound files from the Internet. "Brand New Day" would take six minutes with a cable modem, 200 minutes -- that's three hours and 20 minutes -- with a 56k modem. Now, take "Brand New Day" in its MP3 form. It would take 32 seconds to download over a cable modem; just over 11 minutes through a 56k modem.
That means you could download Sting's entire "Brand New Day" album in MP3 form in just over five minutes over a cable modem. The album art, liners and lyrics delivered in printable form would add just a few seconds to the download time.
That's the future.
It's also, to some extent, the present. You can go to a number of sites like eMusic.com, CDbaby.com and MP3.com and buy individual tracks right now. But that's rarely an option with the most popular bands, and full CD delivery isn't happening yet.
One delay is an ongoing debate over which format is the best. Sony, Microsoft and Apple all have their own proprietary formats. The MPEG committee has already released MP4 standards, though it represents more of a compression enhancement than improved sound. Its MP7 standards, which will include multichannel audio for use with surround-sound systems, is expected to be released next year and won't be in widespread use until mid-decade.
AIFF: Audio Interchange File Format, the standard uncompressed audio format for Macintosh computers
WAV: The common shorthand for Windows waveform audio format files, the standard uncompressed audio format for IBM compatible personal computers, developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft. These files require a .wav suffix when used on a PC.
MP3: It means MPEG Audio Layer-III, and it's a standard format for compressing digital audio. MP3 is a universal technology as opposed to high-end audio compression technology developed by Sony or Microsoft, which is proprietary and can only be played on devices licensed by those companies. MP3 was established in 1992.
CD: Compact disc, a storage device that includes layers of gold or silver-colored alloy and a clear polycarbonite coating. The data is pressed into the disc in a series of raised areas (somewhat like an old vinyl record) that correspond with the 1s and 0s of binary data. The difference in these raised areas is sensed by a laser in a CD player. A standard CD holds 650 or 800 megabytes of data (73 or 80 minutes of standard WAV/AIFF music files or 14 to 17 hours of MP3s coded for portable players, or 7 to 9 hours of MP3s coded for play on high-end stereo equipment.)
CD burner: Uses lasers to etch data into the gold or silver-colored coating on a compact disc.
DVD: Digital Versatile Disc, the new standard for entertainment data storage. The same size as a standard CD, it holds 18.8 gigabytes of data -- the equivalent of 29 standard CDs.
Rip: The term for copying audio data directly from a CD.
Encoding: The process of taking audio files either directly from a CD or a WAV or AIFF file and compressing it to MP3.
MPEG: Moving Picture Experts Group. The MPEG committee set standards for translating audio and video into digital format. MPEG sets the standards not only for MP3, but for technology like DVD and DirecTV. Manufacturers must agree to meet the standards to be licensed to produce equipment using the technology.
RIAA: Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group formed to support fair legislation for copyright owners.
SDMI: Secure Digital Music Initiative, a coalition of music companies dedicated to developing technical specifications for securing music across all digital platforms.
-- Tracy Collins
The major record labels prefer using MP4-based delivery but not just for the aural glory. The companies that have developed MP4 software have kept a tighter rein on licensing, hoping to sell it to major industry players. It was a potential not realized when MP3 licensing took place. Because of this strict control and because the format allows coding to track the use of the file, the record labels would like to see this bring some law and order to the Net music frontier.
Bruce Fries of Silver Spring, Md., author of "The MP3 and Internet Music Handbook" ($24.95, TeamCom Books), sees no quick resolution to the issue.
"I don't think the format situation is going to be sorted out for several years," he said. "I think the consumer is safe getting started now with something like MP3 that has wide support and isn't going to go away."
Another delay in widespread Internet delivery has been the struggle by the recording industry to gain control. Led by their umbrella organization, the Recording Industry Association of America, the major record labels have challenged consumer rights to turn music they've purchased into MP3s (they lost, most recently in U.S. Appeals Court last June). They also have challenged independent Web sites' rights to deliver the music online, though the RIAA's lawsuit against MP3.com was met by a suit filed last month by MP3.com, charging unfair trade practices, trade libel and defamation.
The RIAA takes the threat of online music so seriously, it has scaled back its policing of unlawful CD duplication to wage aggressive war on music posted illegally on the Internet. After all, a college student burning a disc and giving or selling it to a buddy does far less damage than having that disc's content placed on a Web site in MP3 form, allowing anyone with an Internet connection and some patience to download it for free.
While all of this battling has gone on, billions of dollars are changing hands as speculators bid for the industry's future:
Blame it on Rio
For a while, MP3 was a quaint format for those who chose to listen to music while working on their computers. Then, along came Diamond Multimedia, and things turned serious.
Diamond developed something called the Rio, a portable player about the dimensions of a deck of cards, though weighing less. You can attach it to your computer, download MP3s and take them with you, never having to worry about the skip of a CD or the flutter of a cassette. Copycats have lined up to follow the Rio into market, and some firms are beginning to make MP3 components for stereos, but only after Diamond saved itself in court.
The RIAA filed a temporary restraining order against Diamond in October 1998 in an attempt to prevent the release of the Rio. The basis of the suit was that the Rio could be used to play illegally downloaded MP3s, and Diamond couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't be used this way. The only problem is, it also could be used to play legal MP3s.
In the course of fighting the case, the RIAA allowed the courts to loosen the grip of copyright laws. As the RIAA interpreted the law, any kind of duplication of a song was illegal, even if you were recording a tape from your CD to use while jogging. Converting a song into an MP3 and loading it onto a Rio was truly heinous.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that if you purchase a CD, converting it to other formats for your own personal use was protected by the Doctrine of Fair Use, part of copyright law.
Sure, it's still illegal to post an unauthorized MP3 on a Web site and illegal to send it to a friend. But it was declared legal for consumers to use music in multiple formats, including MP3, and legal to use the Rio to play it. The record labels changed their tactics and negotiated with Diamond Multimedia and won the company's support for any new security measures it might initiate.
The technological hurricane hasn't let up for the RIAA yet. The ability to broadcast MP3s continuously over the Internet using a technology called "streaming" -- also pioneered by AOL's Nullsoft -- allows virtually anyone with access to a Web server and a little know-how to create his own Internet radio station. With a piece of software to enhance Winamp, Web surfers can go to a streaming site and use that site as a radio station. The RIAA is fighting this because it violates copyright restrictions on the number of times a song can be played on the radio and makes it impossible to police for the sake of collecting royalties.
Someday soon, a court will have to decide whether it really qualifies as radio and should be policed as such. Until then, nothing is stopping a zealous fan from creating a Web radio site that plays 'N Sync continuously -- except maybe the bounds of good taste.
Also being closely monitored by the RIAA are sites like MyMusic.com. Here, users can store all of their MP3s to download when they need them, where they need them (as long as they have an Internet connection). They also can stream music from the site, essentially creating their own playlists from a remote server. But you can bet the RIAA will be monitoring sites like these for any whiff of storage or distribution of illegal MP3.
Fries points out that the RIAA must walk a fine line between protecting its artists and its profits while also protecting its future.
"I think the industry is ultimately going to fail in their efforts [to restrict MP3 use] because if they're successful, they're going to make it so inconvenient that they'll kill the [online music] industry. They can't afford to do that because it's too important for their own business.
"I think we're going to see a lot of fireworks and a lot of contention over the next few years, but I don't think its going to scare off MP3 users.
"MP3 will continue to be supported, even if another kind of format is sanctioned by the RIAA, because there are so many utilities out there that will translate the files back to WAV, which is a standard format, and then it can retranslated back to whatever new format is out there.
Looking for help
After all of its flailings to fend off MP3, the RIAA finally turned for help to the man who started it all, MPEG founder Chiariglioni.
As dispassionately as Albert Einstein developed atomic theory yet loathed its use in a bomb, Chiariglioni becomes incensed when discussing its the use of MP3 as a music pirating tool.
"In all countries, you have law-abiding citizens and you have criminals," he said. "Those who would use this illegally, I have no opinion of them."
At the recording industry's behest, Chiariglioni founded the Secure Digital Music Initiative, a coalition of 120 scientists and recording industry executives looking to create a way to protect music from pirating, regardless of the platform.
"The sole purpose of SDMI is to find balance between the needs of the consumer and the need to protect the artist," Chiariglioni said, adding that the MP3 craze among consumers "is a reflection of the desire to get all the music they want when they want. But the music has to be respected."
The SDMI committees were able to achieve their goal in four labor-intensive months. They developed a sophisticated technology that acts like a shrink-wrap around any kind of format with which it is used. Here's how it works:
First, you pay to download that latest single from, say, D'Angelo's record company Web site. The track is able to identify your ownership, which was registered when you downloaded it.
You also have four uses of it, which is a number SDMI decided would be a fair number considering the many devices people now own. That means you can use a copy of it on your portable player, a copy on your stereo, a copy on your laptop and a copy on your office computer. But if you also want to use it on your car's player, you'll have to remove it from one of the other players first.
How does it know where else you have it loaded? It interacts with software needed to play it on each of the devices. That means it can't be tracked that way on devices you already own, because the encoding isn't in use yet. Of course, it also means the tracks can't be played on those devices, either, unless you download software making them compliant with the new standard. And by downloading the software, you activate the tracking.
Chiariglioni notes that there's no way to make the coding retroactive, so all of the CDs and MP3s you already own can't be restricted this way. But in the future they will, and that also means your player can detect if a piece of music has been downloaded or copied illegally. And it just won't play that piece of music.
The standard also is designed to protect the integrity of the music, meaning that editing songs or lifting pieces of it as sound files on the computer won't be possible.
Fries supports protecting the rights and royalties of artists, but assures that a computer whiz soon will find a way to bypass the security. In fact, though he hasn't gotten his hands on an SDMI-encoded file, he already envisions an easy workaround:
"I can purchase music in SDMI format and capture it through my sound card to unencrypt it," he said. "They might try to tell me that it's illegal, but copyright law is clear on that."
Such suggestions send Chiariglioni's blood pressure soaring, and his voice goes up an octave.
"These are the kind of people who climb [Mount] Everest just because they can," he said. "There's nothing you can do about those people. They will always feel the need to do these things.
"What happened to America, the home of capitalism, where there is protection of the right to sell property?
"Music is property."
That line serves as rallying cry for those trying to wrap their arms around this musical revolution, because the debate is more focused on property than music.
But it remains to be seen whether online music becomes a form of high-tech commerce controlled by recording industry giants or a brave new world in which the next Cobain is discovered after posting his MP3. The only thing certain at this point is that the music business will never be the same.
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College dropout Justin Frankel became a 20-year-old, self-made multimillionaire by selling his company, Nullsoft, to America Online in a $400 million stock deal. (Frankel's cut was kept quiet.) Nullsoft happens to make Winamp, the No. 1 program for playing MP3. AOL can now link Winamp to the record industry's newest behemoth: AOL's recently acquired property, Warner Music Group, became partners with British record giant EMI Recorded Music, and between them they represent 20 percent of the share of the music business. With that clout protecting AOL's investment in Winamp, it guarantees that MP3 will be a dominant format for delivering music online.