Downloading music online
Why bother to change CDs or buy auto changers when you can get music streaming to your pc online? Somewhere online there is someone who shares their music files in your taste with you. There are thousands of internet radio stations broadcasting you could really call it a musical superhighway!
How does streaming work?
Well normally when we place a piece of music we have a hard copy of it and listen to it in real time, so we may download a piece of music and then have a file to store. When you are listening to something that is streaming from the internet you don’t have to wait for it to download, as it plays to you direct from their computer / server. Your computer will need to have a good connection to the internet that can cope with a live stream.
Music, video and live talking can stream to you in theory – and as computers get better, it will be very common (maybe TV will stream??)
Compressing file
When the connection line is a slow dial up, it may still be possible to stream the file if it is compressed. Compressing (making the file smaller) can make it easier and faster to download.
MP3 is the most common type of compression. It retains most of the quality of the music but reduces it down to a tenth of the size.
Copyright
There is plenty of legal music you can download online – paying a small fee you can do this monthly or per music file. Sites like Music-match.com and liquid audio provide a complete package for people that respect copyright. There are of course companies like bear share, limewire and the famous napster and kazzar who offer file sharing of all types – this however means the artist does not get paid for his work!
