Monday, May 14, 2001		The world of  dot.com

Download and dance

MP3 is a system to compress sound data and is part of a larger video data compression system developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). Our lead story deals in detail about it. Some of the sites that provide links to such sites are:

The site mp3.com is the music service provider allowing consumers to instantly discover, purchase, listen, store and organise music collection through any Internet device. One can listen to almost any kind of music, jazz, latin, metal, pop, rock, classical or country. With a collection of more than half-a-million song from more than one lakh artists, mp3 .com claims to be the most popular site to download English music.

The site provides two software. One can be downloaded free that can record and play mp3 files. It also features personalised mp3 radio and music guide. The other one has to be purchased and has some additional utilities like 25 per cent faster mp3 ripping and custom CD cover printing.

As an added benefit, the site provides facilities like message board facility where people can meet, share ideas, and ask questions. We can also buy CDs online and before the purchase we can download at least one free mp3 track per album to reach a decision. It also provides facilities for members to easily build their music destination Web site. Based on visitor clicks and downloads top performing artists get their rewards as share in the profit of the company.

This site is full of English songs, sung by various singers from all countries. Powerful alphabetical search engine helps to find the songs within fraction of seconds. The site claims to have the technology that categorise the audio files by artists, genre, country and even instrument using artificial intelligence. One can even view the video of the songs.

Hosted by Hypermart, the site is full of all kind of Indian songs. Index page shows different categories made for easy selection of songs. Songs of Gursewak Mann, Gurdas Mann, Harbhajan Mann are kept under their name in the index page. There is also a collection of latest English songs. The site has a good collection of regional music. Popular Punjabi and Hindi songs and ghazals, are all available for free download. However too many pop-up windows (which comes as a bonus) irritate the surfers.