Turn Up The MP3!!

Hearing it From The Pros

-People listen up! There's a new player in town.
And this time there's a chip on it's shoulder.

By Trevor Schmidt and Eric Balanon

The year is 2004, it has been over five years since the MP3 format was unleashed upon the world and since then it has had a tremendous impact upon the music industry. Technology has seen more changes in the first decade of the new millennium than it did in the 90s. So as not to confuse any of you, we felt it was only appropriate to delve into the history of the MP format that pioneered the trails and lead that information into the MP monster of today-the MP Chip. Read on!

Q. Some of our readers are unaware of the MP3 format because it was used several years ago. Tell us what MP3 is?

A. MP3 is a highly compressed computer file format used for the storage and transmission of sound and music. MP3 uses the same type of highly efficient and extremely clever fractal-based algorithms for compression as JPG does for photographs. Like JPG, MP3 is a slightly lossy format, meaning that the compressed piece of audio was not quite identical to the uncompressed source audio.

Q. What was the difference between an mp3 file and a conventional WAV file?

A. Conventional WAV files were not compressed. Audio files in the WAV format were up to ten times larger than MP3 files. The size of a high quality WAV file was roughly 10 MB per minute of audio, whereas that of an equivalent MP3 file was roughly 1 MB per minute.

Q. What did Streambox Inc. and Windows have in common for future uses of mp3's?

A. Streambox Inc. announced the release of Streambox in late 1999, a software program that converted CDs, RealAudio files and MP3s to the Microsoft Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. Using MP3 technology, the Streambox Ripper could batch-convert enormous music collections into WMA without sacrificing sound quality. "Streambox Ripper will help add to the rapidly growing Windows Media content on the Internet by allowing the existing library of music, audio books, talk radio and other recordings in other formats to be easily converted to Windows Media," said Bob Hildeman, chairman and CEO of Streambox at the time. Other features included a built-in 10-line equalizer and amplifier and a CD-track information window.

Q. Tell us about the mobile device invented in 1999 to play MP3 files.

A. Wireless Internet specialists Wysdom Inc. and Ericsson Canada announced plans in late 1999 to begin testing a new wireless transmission system capable of sending audio files from the desktop to mobile phones and PDAs on demand. The Wysdom Wireless Jukebox software, which promised to search for, gather, organize and schedule digital MP3 files for transmission to mobile MP3 hardware devices, was based around third-generation (3G) Ericsson technology that used WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access). "The family of 3G applications opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the future of wireless technology," said Yousuf Chowdhary, VP of new products for Wysdom, 1999. "We are excited about where these advances will take us. We intend to work closely with hardware manufacturers to make MP3 on demand a new reality."

Q. What advantages did MP3's provide for unsigned artists in the future?

A. According to sources, Universal Music Group was the first major record label to begin hosting a web site where unsigned bands could upload songs, artist information and conceivably vie for record-label contracts. "It's supposed to be a farm-league thing," said one source, which believed the program would launch before the end of the year. "They'll use it as an A&R vehicle to find new bands and post music." Universal executives said they expected to begin making portions of their catalogue available for download by the holiday season of 1999. The company announced in May 1999 that it would employ InterTrust digital-rights management technology to offer copyright-protected versions of songs. Potential sites for the rumoured Universal project include BMG joint-venture web property music. Still, reports at the time remained vague.

Q. Did the MP4 platform set off on a deceitful foot?

A. Here's how it started, in brief. In a move sure to anger open standard evangelists, a small firm began using the MP4 to describe their proprietary format. A song first debuted on the Public Enemy web site billed as an "MP4 file." Many online and off-line news organizations such as Billboard Magazine reported that this was the first public airing of an MP4 file, the logical successor to MP3. In reality, the file was a creation of Global Music, a licensee of the A2B music format. By combining the proprietary A2B format with an executable file, the company came up with their own format they had dubbed MP4 which was not compatible with MPEG 4 AUDIO. The resulting song file required no additional software to play and could not be used with any other audio application that afforded a certain level of security. Industry analyst John Parres said in 1999 that "It's unclear how people would listen to a collection of such files or an entire CD since each song has to be individually launched."

Q. What made the jump from MP3 to MP4 so drastically important to the on-line music world back in 1999?

A. The differences between MP3 and MP4 were taking the MP music format in the right direction, and this time we felt we really had a jump on the keys to making this ship fly. The MP4 format created an encoding platform that allowed higher compression of music or any audio converted into the MP4 platform. A five-minute song would now only eat up 1.7 Megabytes of hard drive space. This of course was a definite feature of the MP4 platform that attracted users of the MP3 format. What really made it stand out was the fact that you could now listen to audio files that were smaller than their predecessors, but now the listener could relish in perfect digital bliss. The problem all along with the MP3 format was the challenge of condensing .wav files without losing too much of their original integrity. Keeping the digital perfection of an original piece of music was sometimes non-existent once that piece was encoded and played back on an MP3 player. Listeners soon discovered tempo problems, white noise and occasional crackling, audible waning and occasional dead spots within certain pieces of music. Although the new MP4 platform rendered audio with clear precision, MP3 players could no longer be used. Pieces encoded into the MP4 format were structured far differently than the older MP3s. The transition from using conventional MP3 players to the new MP4 platform did not take long at all. We made the new players easily available on the Web, not only at our website, but at many other sites as well; and once again the players were free. With the new MP4 players in hand, music once again time-warped through yet another evolutionary phase and listeners could, at the time, enjoy hours of music in a seemingly perfect digital format and worry even less about space consumption. Music compression and playback formats have now taken on a very fresh look with our latest encoding innovation.

Q. This brings up the next question. What is the MP Chip?

A. The MP Chip's arrival has been long awaited. We began engineering processes at the turn of the millennium; five years later we now have a fully functional prototype of what some people have dubbed "hard music". The MP Chip stores music into physical memory; similar to what RAM (Random Access Memory) does in conventional desktop computers, however the MP Chip never forgets what is stored within it until the user requests the deletion of certain material (songs) stored therein. The MP Chip is hard memory that is non-volatile. In this sense it a perfect storage medium for large amounts of music, or any type of audio. The MP Chip stores an astonishing 1000 hours of music in a perfect digital format for flawless playback through the new MP Chip players, called MP Backpacks.

Q. So what can the new MP Backpack players do?

A. We have created a compact hand-held player that will be available for purchase at most retail outlets by March 2005. The Backpack is affordable, small and extremely versatile. Toward the end of the millennium, we saw portable music players that could hold a small amount of audio, ran on a primitive battery system and stifled user flexibility. The Backpack takes these early ideas for a convenient portable player and belittles them. We have loaded it with features that statistically will comply with what users want in a player. The Backpack plugs directly into any desktop or laptop computer so the user can up/download any audio to or from the Backpack. The Backpack has a built-in interface that is very straightforward and simple to use, the user can even directly interface the player through the screen of his desktop or laptop computer with the push of a button; no cables required. The Backpack runs on a built-in supercharged lithium cell that plugs into any wall or vehicle cigarette lighter outlet (adapters are included) and becomes fully charged in a mere 30 seconds. We are currently developing power cells that will run the Backpack for 60 days at 8 hours/day of use. More powerful cells are currently in development.

Q. Do you plan on stemming from the Backpack's capabilities?

A. You read my mind. We are currently in the process of using the Backpack's interfacing potential to bring full-motion video into the picture. We have dubbed this little beauty The MP Vidpack. Users will be able to interface via their computer display and (similar to the audio player) upload or download video of any kind. The current prototype will be ready for beta-testing in 40 days, it will operate in the same manner as the audio player with a simple user interface and accompanying storage chips (licensed as the Video Player Chip or VP Chip) will store up to 650 hours of full-motion video. The only stipulation required is that the user must interface a computer to watch any type of video media; the video player will not do this independently.

Q. You have a workaround for this problem, I presume?

A. Indeed we do. The hand-held video player will operate in the same manner as the sister audio player, one push of a button and you can watch video on-screen through your home computer, and yes; no cables are required. This is an exciting step for us. Never before have such immense storage mediums for audio and video been available, not only available, but available for the masses to enjoy. If only we knew five years ago that breaking the boundaries was going to be so easy. So much for the Y2K problem! We know the people at MP will continue to do their part to astonish the public in the rapidly expanding (or should we say "compressing") future. The company now holds one the highest stocks in North America and it seems to be steadily climbing. The number of music fanatics also seems to be steadily climbing. With innovative ideas like the ones discussed above, how can one help but love these guys. The products coming from them are nothing but cool. Keep up the good work guys. Now the only question we have is: when can we buy one! ** The only news organization to accurately report the MP4 situation was Wired News. Their article also reported that GMO had filed for and received a trademark on MP4. A search of the USPTO trademark database did not turn up any such registration at the time of this story. (Note: www.MP3.com owns the www.MP4.com domain name.)

Bibliography Information was taken from the following web sites:

-http://freespace.virgin.net/john.clethroe/misc/mp3faq.htm

-www.mp3.com

-www.mpeg.org

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