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When the MP3 player took off in the late 1990s, the format itself entered the public consciousness in a way not many others have — with perhaps the Word document being an exception. But what is an audio format, anyway, and why should you care?This guide will cover some of the most popular formats used by audio streaming services today and explain their differences.What is an audio file format?A digital audio file is how recorded content gets saved on a computer, media player, smartphone, or other device. Digital audio is, at its most basic level, a series of numbers that...

I have created an audio server (currently for music) that can play audio over the internet. It can be any type of audio. Not just music. The preferred audio format is mp3. It is portable too and can be moved to any internet client.

Tech Ping: Wanted a Device to Listen to Books and Radio and Music... So went to my local Staples and they sold me something called a fire7 get this...with ALEXA. All I wanted was a machine that would essentially replace the Sony Walkman that was in my pocket 20 years ago. What I got was a device that is essentially a pocket computer that tracks and listens to me. for 45 dollars. Which means that it is funded by the apps to get in my life. I had no idea that ALEXA came with it, and I did not open...

I have lost all my tunes twice over the past several years; once through hard drive failure and once because I changed my email address. In both cases, because the suppliers require a specific login or download code, they were all lost. I am looking for a service that allows you to buy a tune, download it to hard drive, and then have it available to you with no special code or login so I can simply put them on Windows Media Player. Any help is appreciated.

I need to find a good video downloader compatible with VLC.

JOHN DANKOSKY, HOST: Up next: how to tell your CD from your MP3, from your AAC. But first, let's start with the LP. When I was a kid, music took up a lot of room - not in your hard drive, but in your life. Being an audiophile meant devoting shelves and shelves and shelves and shelves to your album collection. And when you moved out of your parents' house, out of your first apartment, you hauled milk crates filled with your music collection onto your next life. And these days, most of us probably get our music in the...

As time goes by I find reading less pleasurable, mostly due to time constraints and my continuing fading vision. I find myself listening to more stuff on my MP3 player. I also am finding those voices I want to pay attention to. For almost thirty years one of those people I listen to VERY CAREFULLY is Angelo Codevilla, whose insights into the nature of the political world are unerringly well thought through. His previous book, "America's Ruling Class," a bipartisan evisceration of the political establishment, ranks in my opinion with Thomas Sowell's "Conflict of Vision," perhaps the most insightful secular...

Winamp media player is no more after AOL decided to close the company on December 20, 2013, saying goodbye to 15 years of good and loyal service to the public. For the millions of people who used this player, whose glory days were in the 90s, it's time for some meditation. Before finally drawing a line through Winamp, here are 5 things that only true fans of Winamp will understand.

I'm having trouble recording mp3s. My Asus laptop has 2 headphone jacks and I used to use a short cable between one of them to my microphone jack and use Magix to record internet radio while I'm at work. I recently had a virus removed that required reinstalling Windows 7. Since then one headphone jack stopped working and when I connect the one that does work to the mic jack I just get a buzz in the recording. If I connect a mic to the jack and record from that it seems to work but the recording is not as...

Say you buy a textbook in another country, where textbooks are cheap. Then you bring the book back to the U.S. and sell it at a profit. Did you break the law? No, you didn't. In a ruling that came down yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a student who had his friends and relatives buy textbooks in Thailand which he later re-sold in the U.S. on eBay. The ruling was a key moment in something called the "first sale" doctrine, which says that, if you buy something that's copyrighted, you're allowed to "sell or otherwise dispose" of...

So here's the deal: After years of sacrafice, debt and driving a very old car to get three daughters through college and independent, they have made it possible for us to drive a vehicle as new as your average food stamp receipient. Not only does it have a beautiful sounding CD player (all but the radio was shot on our old car), but it also has one of those plug-in things. The girls tell us we need to buy an I-Pod or MP3 player of at least 4 gigabytes and a connecting cord to plug in so we can enjoy...

If you read the print edition of a newspaper, still make calls over a landline or plan to rent a tuxedo for an upcoming wedding, you are doing what many of your friends and neighbors gave up long ago. Analysts at IBISWorld, a market research firm, recently compiled a list of 10 industries that may be on the "verge of extinction in the United States." Within its database of close to 700 industries, about 200 are in decline, with the ones selected having seen large and steady drops in revenue and number of establishments. From the beginning of 2011 to...

(1) Turn on your MP3 player or music player on your computer. (2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode. (3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up--song title and artist--NO editing/cheating, please.

At the ripe age of 28, Jon Zimmer is sort of an old fogey. That is, he is obsessive about the sound quality of his music. ... But iPods and compressed computer files ... are “sucking the life out of music,” he says. The last decade has brought an explosion in dazzling technological advances ... that have transformed the fan’s experience. There are improvements in the quality of media everywhere — except in music. In many ways, the quality of what people hear — how well the playback reflects the original sound— has taken a step back. ... In one...

SNIPPET: "Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) put out a new audio production through their media outlet, Al-Malahim Media, by way of Al-Fajr, featuring former GTMO detainee, Shaikh Ibrahim al-Rubaysh, who is now a religious authority for AQAP. I’m drawing your attention to this, not because his statement entitled, “How Could You Abandon Jihad?” was that compelling – because it wasn’t (although it was pretty alarmist) – but because of the banner graphic they used featuring a personal audio player. I’ve seen this before but for some reason I was inspired to comment this time. The notion that kids anywhere...

Leaked documents reveal draft text of secret global copyright deal ) OTTAWA — As negotiators from 37 countries prepare to meet in New Zealand on Monday to discuss a top-secret trade agreement, a draft text of the document has found its way onto the Internet. While bits and pieces of the agreement, called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), have been leaked in the past, this is the first time a full draft is available to the public. The agreement, negotiated privately for the better part of two years, aims to create a global organization to oversee worldwide copyright and intellectual...

All the big music sellers may have moved to non-DRM MP3 files long ago, but the watermarking of files with your personal information continues. Most users who buy music don’t know about the marking of files, or don’t care. Unless those files are uploaded to BitTorrent or other P2P networks, there isn’t much to worry about.A list of which music services are selling clean MP3 files without embedded personal information, and which aren’t, is here. Apple, LaLa (owned by Apple) and Walmart embed personal information. Amazon, Napster and the rest have resisted label pressure to do so.A music industry...

Yesterday, I got a text message from my cousin asking if my son wanted any CD shelves, because he was getting rid of his.  I texted him back “LOL CDs.”Our CDs – thousands of them – are stacked on a floor to ceiling shelf unit in the garage. All those compact discs have been ripped onto the various computers in our house, shrunk down to invisible little bytes that take up no space in the house.  All of our subsequent music has been bought in digital form (save for my occasional vinyl purchases).If there was any doubt that the compact...

With Christmas less than 2 weeks away I thought it would be nice for us to share our favorite performance of Christmas songs. This is one my mine, Charlotte Church singing Oh Come,All Ye Faithful. I highly recommend her Christmas album, "Dream A Dream" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4H2DswtluM&feature=related

PERMITTED USES OF THIS MUSIC   The songs on this site are provided for free, legal download...but there are a few restrictions. Since we receive a lot of questions about this, here are some guidelines: unrestricted personal listening is permitted. This includes listening on a personal computer, burning a personal CD and transfer to a personal listening device (i.e., iPod or MP3 player)burning a copy to give to a friend as a GIFT is permitted, as is sending an MP3 as an email attachment We have no authority to grant permission apart from personal listening, but by way of illustration...