Digital Music

Now and forever

History 1.1

Digital music was revolutionized by the invention of the MP3 music file format. Before the invention of the MP3 music format, digital music was mostly recorded to digital tapes and the CD medium. Further more most of this music digital data was saved as a wave file. Unfortunately wave file format are too large and thus more cumbersome to save on to a disk. The ease of storing MP3 also made it easy to distribute, share and copy music. Since the invention of MP3 format, which is less than half the size of a wave file, it has been much more facile to redistribute digital music and music in general.( Digital Music: Problems and Possibilities, William Fisher,2000)

History 1.2

Another integral part of the digital music revolution Digital Music was peer to peer technology. By definition peer to peer technology (p2p is a method of sharing digital files from one computer to another. They are two types of peer to peer technology centralized peer to peer technology and decentralized peer to peer technology. An example of a centralized p2p technology is Naspter and an example of a decentralized p2p technology is Kazaa and Morphous file sharing software. (How the Old Napster Worked by Jeff Tyson, 2000)

Present 1.1

Currently Naspter uses super peer technology rather than p2p technology. Naspter that it’s going to use IBM service and Linux to provide service for Universities. The advantages of using super peer technologies rather than using p2p technology is first Naspter uses will have better security and privacy on their computer. The second advantage of using super peer technology for Naspter is less load and traffic on the University network infrastructure. (Napster Looks to Big Blue, Linux to Deliver Downloads Network, Jay Lyman)

Tech tips 3.1

If you own an Ipod and have a lot of itunes, you are trying to edit the information about your itunes you can by editing the XML and the metadata of the itune music file. By definition Meta data is data about data and XML stands for extensible mark up language and is super set of HTML which is stands for hyper text mark up language. Another definition for XML is a subset of the SGML that allows Businesses, organizations and the government to interchange data among or in between them in a data in a standardized format. In addition to that XML also allow an entity to customize or create their own tags and extend the of the capabilities of an HTML script. If you want to learn how go to XML.com: Hacking iTunes. (Hacking iTunes, Niel Bornstein, 2004).

Tech tips 3.2

In addition to that if you are trying to more power and control over your itunes I suggested Apple scripts. Apple scripts are basic program script. That only work on a Mac computer and can manipulates and autonomous events on a Macintosh computer. If you want to learn more about downloading or writing your own apple script goes to itunes scripts (Doug’s Apple script, Malcolm Adam’s 2004)

Present 2.1

Naspter.com

Currently they are three major distributors of Digital music. The first major distributors are Napster.com, second are MP3.com and third are MSN.com and Apple.com. As for the first distributor Naspter run a service that is less than ten dollars for about 700,000 albums. If with an average of ten CD an album, a Napster user has almost 7 million songs to choose from. If you want to learn more about Naspter digital music go to Napster.com. Using Microsoft media player and portable Mp3 devices, a Naspter user can also mobile digital music in which can be experience in their car or whilst they are jogging. If you want to learn more about Mobile digital technologies using Napster click here

MP3

Mp3 is another major digital music distributor. Like Napster the Mp3 down city not only has music, but it also has games, movies and other miscellaneous entertainment. If you want to learn click here. They have more than 100 songs. Mp3 uses the same technology a smiliar Network technology to Napster.

Apple.com

While MP3download city and Naspster only provide music and software to download those collection of songs, Apple.com went further and provided an hardware device that can let you listen to your MP3, wav files or ACC digital file format any where. On the music consumer side of things, Jobs announced that Apple's ITunes music service has now sold its 30 millionth song, and is now distributing close to 1.9 million songs per week, out of a total catalog of half a million songs. Robert McMillan, IDG, Macworld Announcements Focus on Multimedia. Another Major distributor is apple.com with itunes digital music store. “An ipod user can purchase digital songs or content, Apple's ITunes electronic warehouse offers music in AAC format for ninety nine cents. In addition to digital songs an Ipod user can also acquire an audio book varying from $2.95 to $15.95 per copy First Look at Apple's IPod Mini, Alexandra Krasne, 2004).

. The Future of digital music 1.1

Apple is introducing MP4 and Most PC users can use Ipods and download itunes software from the Microsoft is also releasing digital music. Plus other companies such as Dell DJ music player, Samsung Electronics, Sanyo, ViewSonic, and iRiver are releasing other portable other device to make it Microsoft digital music mobile and portable Microsoft Delays Digital Music Devices, Laura Rohde, IDG News Service. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft's MSN Music permits users to legally download songs mostly for 99 cents per download. The service also makes entire albums available, the majority of which cost $9.99 per month, the company said. Microsoft unveils digital music service, Michael Paige, 2004. In the future customers will have more digital music format and option and more digital devices to play it from.