Re: [microsound] mp3 label practicalities [encoding $cheme$]

[Derek Holzer <derek@xxxxxx>]

vadim,

in short: the obvious answer is ogg vorbis. it is supported by many user-end 
applications [players and editors both] under Mac, PC and Linux. it sounds 
better at lower bitrates, blah blah blah...

see: http://www.vorbis.com/faq.psp

---aaaand--- most important for web-label owners, it is open source and free, 
thereby avoiding all the licensing fees which the owners of the mp3 codec can 
legally impose on content producers. that makes the choice not just 
an "ideological" one of open source or not, but also a financial one.

i, for one, am amazed when i run across weblabels still using Real, especially 
if they claim to be make non-commercial music, and i still have to look at ads 
for Christina Aguilaria and other such nonsense in the player. not to mention 
the sneaky fact that it auto-runs every time you turn your machine on! [ctl-alt-
dlt and see, RA windows users!]

i can understand the initial appeal of MP3 [portable, "underground" as of the 
Napster era, sounds good, easy to use...], but go look at
http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/emd.html
and you will see the following:

====="Electronic Music Distribution / Broadcasting / Streaming
Commercial (i.e., revenue-generating) use of mp3 / mp3PRO in real time 
broadcasting (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or any other media), 
broadcasting / streaming via Internet, intranets and/or other networks or in 
other electronic content distribution systems, such as pay-audio or audio-on-
demand applications. 

Running Royalty 
mp3PRO · 3.0 % of related revenue 
mp3 · 2.0 % of related revenue 
  
Minimum Royalties 
Annual minimum royalties are payable upon signature and each following year in 
January and are fully creditable against annual royalties.  
mp3PRO · US$ 3 000.00 per calendar year  
mp3 · US$ 2 000.00 per calendar year"===== 

2 to 3 percent may not seem like a lot, but i promise you that you won't want 
to have to deal with this 2 or 3 thousand minimum payment when the time comes. 
you may think your weblabel is little fish, but look at what they have done 
with webstreaming in the States already! suddenly, many of your close friends 
and mine owe thousands of bucks for content they have streamed over the last 
two years, whether it "belonged" to ASCAP or BMI or the other biggie licensing 
firms or not!

hope this informs a few decisions out there in weblabel land :-)

derek

Quoting vadim sprikut <blohhskj@xxxxxxxxx>:

> 
> another question regarding your mp3/cd-r labels: do most of you use mp3 as
> the format for audio content (esp. for samples of longer works)? i run across
> a fair amount of sites that still use Realaudio, which i cant stand. i had to
> uninstall it because of its intrusiveness and because it impaired my OS
> (win2k). 
> 
> the main tradeoff is file size...a number of people have commented on the
> lack of bandwith and how expensive it can get. it seems like for many people,
> this is more a labor of love than any kind of financial venture so RA would
> be more efficient that way; at least thats the impression i get from visiting
> various sites.
> 
> v'
> 
> 
> 
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