Compression and the Net

[len bullard <cbullard@hiwaay.net>]

>As I said: I've never tested it, but a friend at work says
>that the loss of quality at 12-to-1 is virtually undetectable.

>If we're prepared to accept a minimum of quality-loss on 
>the way, we could have a 5min song packed into just a few Mb. 
>Isn't it worth investigating?

>Mikael Jakonen  

If you wait a little longer, the dominant VRML browsers 
will be supporting streaming audio by February (hopefully).
This is likely to be an MPEG-based system.  The meetings 
with the MPEG group and the ISO and VRML Consortium group 
are going on as we write.

Interestingly, a lot of money is being poured into 
downloadable products for DVD. Step into the music 
store, order the songs you want, they put it on your 
disk.  It may make hash of traditional album concepts 
and may be one of the factors that drive traditional 
composers into multi-hyper-media skills and products 
faster.  

I wonder how artists will react and cope.  Will it 
be similar to the dilemma silent movie stars faced 
when it was discovered they had nice faces, good 
moves, and bad voices?  Will it begin to eat at 
M-TV that a media is emerging in which being a 
model first isn't required?  Neat things ahead.

Will Kate make the cut?  She can, but will she?

Requisite Diana/Elton content:  They are pressing 
the CDs for the Candle In the Wind release in the 
US about five miles from where I live.  Kept 
some of the neighbors up late doing the overtime 
to get it out there.  And so it goes...

len