The recording industry should be ecstatic. I'm listening to more music these days, which has inspired me to stop by my local record store more often to buy new CDs. When I'm home I listen to the CDs, since I can definitely hear a difference between the MP3 files and the CDs. But the difference isn't great enough to prevent me from enjoying the MP3 files on the road. I don't know if the reduced quality is due to the MP3 format itself or simply the difference between my PC's audio card and my Sony CD player. Still, the recording industry hates people like me; we aren't playing the music game exactly as they dictate. That's why the RIAA is trying to remove the Rio MP3 player from the market. Well, others aren't listening to the recording industry either. Here are a few examples.

    On the software front, Microsoft announced Windows Media™ Technologies 4.0, which is claimed to have double the compression ratio of MP3 with little discernible loss in quality. With the carrot of better compression is the stick of an embedded rights manager that will provide some amount of copy protection for encoded files.

    MusicMatch has already released a beta of its newest version of MusicMatch JukeBox, which supports recording in Windows Media Technologies 4.0. Comparing the same song back to back, encoded in 128-bit MP3 and 64-bit Windows Media Technologies 4.0, I could hear a slight difference. My wife actually preferred the Windows Media Technologies-encoded version over the MP3. The compression of Windows Media Technologies 4.0 is twice that of MP3, reducing Alanis Morissette's song "Ironic" from 3,599KB to 1,836KB.

    RealAudio has also jumped into the MP3 foray. Their CD jukebox program, RealJukebox, has the potential to be a great MP3 player and ripper. (Ripping, for those not in the know, is the process of recording from a CD into MP3 format.)

    RealAudio's RealJukebox provides a number of interesting features while, at the same time, providing some curious default setups. For example, if you don't examine the audio preference dialogs, you'll end up recording the CD in lower-quality audio, not digital format. Also, by default the program inserts a security code to prevent the files encoded by RealJukebox from being played on other systems.

    I assume both of these defaults have been set to placate the recording industry, which can't be too happy with the program. In addition to the defaults, this beta program simply isn't as good as its competition. While I prefer its simple interface to the wildly graphical interfaces of NullSoft's MusicMatch and WinAmp, the program itself couldn't play music without it breaking up whenever a window was moved on the desktop. While the program is still in beta, that kind of breakup is simply unacceptable. I never get audio breakup when I've used either MusicMatch or WinAmp.

    Both Microsoft and RealAudio are throwing bones to the recording industry with security coding of digital file outputs. That's fine with me. The recording industry is missing the point if they think that users will flock to players only capable of playing encrypted digital audio files.

    One of the keys of MP3's success is the personal recording ability it gives the user. If these new formats with their security codes prevent users from doing digital duplication in their own home for anything more than the bare physical cost of the unused media, users will simply turn back to MP3. That's the beauty of MP3—it exists. The genie can't be put back in the bottle.

    What if the RIAA gets its way and is able to remove the Rio and other MP3 players from the market? That won't stop MP3. There are already software-based MP3 players for Palm-size PCs. The Cassiopeia E100, while a typical Microsoft® Windows® CE-based handheld device, also has stereo sound and has been designed to play MP3 files quite well. So while the RIAA may get some digital players banned, it can never ban all the small, portable computing devices that just happen to have a stereo jack.

    What I don't get is that the RIAA has accepted making a personal-use copy with analog equipment, yet it freaks out when it comes to MP3. The standard line is that analog audio recordings aren't high-enough quality to matter. Well, MP3 is a lossy compression scheme; that is, some of the music information is lost during compression and playback. So the rub is that MP3 would be acceptable only if it wasn't as good as it is. Well, perhaps the RIAA could create a really lossy compression scheme that would produce even worse-quality recordings. Perhaps then they'd get off the listener's back and allow personal digital recordings. The recording industry wants lower-quality sound. Now, isn't that ironic?