How does one go about getting mp3s?
With their current growing popularity they are becoming increasingly accessible.  Websites such as mp3.com and mp3junkies.com are specifically devoted to providing web surfers with mp3s.  These sites offer free downloads.  All the mp3s available are completely legal and are have the artists' and recording companies' permission.  Consequently, very few big name artists and bands are available at these sites.  The majority of the mp3s are of small artists who are trying to gain exposure to the public. Mp3.com, for example, has over 400,000 songs available, but most are, as the site declares "up and coming stars."

 As we all know, mp3s of virtually every band exist, even the popular mainstream bands.  How are they made available?  Recently new software has been introduced to the public that can allow people to create their own mp3s.  These devices, known as CD rippers, record a song from a CD to a .wav file.  The .wav file is then converted to an mp3 all in about a quarter of the actually playing time of the song.  One such ripper is available free of charge from musicmatch.com.  The MusicMatch Jukebox has a CD ripper in addition to an actually mp3 player.  A CD ripper can create an mp3 from a song from any music CD whether the artist and record company have given permission or not.  Unfortunately, there is nothing that can prevent a CD from being ripped.

With the introduction of the free CD ripper a flood of mp3s immerged.  Many people posted their favorite mp3s on websites or sent them to each other via email, but were otherwise difficult to find.  It was not until recently that mp3s became easily attainable with the introduction of Napster.

 Napster was created by a freshman computer science major at Northeastern University last year to try to quiet his roommates complaints about the difficulty he had finding mp3s.  What he created was an interactive "music community."  Napster creates a database of all the shared mp3s on the computers that are using Napster and then acts similarly to a search engine.  Napster's server does not actually have any mp3 files, instead it only catalogs all the shared mp3s and then makes the list available to the users.  Those who have Napster have the ability to choose what mp3s they can share with other users.  The sharing is perfectly safe; files can only be copied from other computers and cannot be deleted.  When using Napster, all a user needs to do is search for a song or artist and all the possible matches and a list is generated of all the users who have the song available for download.  The song can then be copied to your computer free.  As Napster expands, and more and more people use it, the number of mp3s available is continually increasing.  The program is available free from napster.com.

Virtually every song however popular or unpopular is available through Napster since people can rip their own mp3s and the share them with a huge number of other music fans.  Searching for songs and downloading them are simple, it only takes a click of a mouse.  The process of others downloading songs from your file library does not have a significant impact on the speed of your internet connection.  Napster continues to become increasingly popular and the music library continues to grow and grow.

 There are many programs available to play mp3s.  One of the most popular is winamp (available free at winamp.com).  Winamp is very similar to a CD player, complete with an equalizer and an editable playlist.  It also has a mini browser that offers a link to purchase the CD from amazon.com as well as artist information and biographies.  Another popular player is the MusicMatch Jukebox (available free at musicmatch.com).  The MusicMatch Jukebox is similar to winamp, except it also has the ability to create mp3s.  Also, newer versions of Napster include a simple mp3 player built in to the program.
 

Created as part of a term project for SCEN103 at the University of Delaware All pages designed and best viewed at 800 x 600 resolution high color (16 bit)  Last updated May 23, 2000.  © 2000 Joseph Brobst, Ian Cosden, Patricia Jenkins, Garry Quinton, Deborah Watson, Univ. of Delaware