MUSIC SHARING OVERVIEW
More than you ever wanted to know about computer audio files and the ways to share them.
Compressed Files
Zip files: are a way of turning a folder into one file that is reduced in size. I will be using Winzip to compress a CD folder that contains the song tracks. CDs must be compressed before they can be uploaded to servers, since you can only upload a file, not a folder. In order to listen to the music, you must decompress the file into the original folder, which restores the song tracks to their original size.
Rar files: can compress files up to 8% to 15% more efficiently than Winzip. Still, it is popular to zip files on LJ because winzip comes with Mircosoft, and some people do not want to download .rar extractor programs.
**You can open both .zip files and .rar files with WinRar, download it here.**
I will zip all CD files uploaded to this journal.
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Song formats
mp3: the universal internet audio file format. Any music program can either play mp3 tracks, or can convert mp3 tracks into the appropriate file type to be played.
m4a/AAC Audio: Real Player and Apple's iTunes can both play this file type. Incomptabile with Windows Media Player, but necessary for iPods.
wma: is mostly associated with Windows Media Player, but can also be played on Creative products. WMP rips CDs into this format by default (but can be changed by going to Tools > Options > Rip music) but this file type isn't popular on LJ, because it is incompatible with iPods.
.wav, .ogg, .mp4: Unpopular file types that I do not deal with.
My CDs available for download are either mp3, m4a, or wma. I upload mp3 by default and I will specify if files are ever wma or m4a.
-The only way I know of to convert wma to mp3 (if you know a good program feel free to comment) is to burn the wma songs to a CD, and then rip them back onto your computer as mp3s.
-To convert m4a to mp3, you could either use Apple's iTunes Library (I don't own this but I'd assume it can convert m4a to mp3) or download this program. My computer is maxed out on space so I don't have a file convertor, but someone recommended the second m4a-to-mp3 program to me so I'm going to assume that it works.
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Song Quality
kbps: kilobytes per second. An average song of about 3 minutes ripped at 128 should be around 3,000 KB (kilobytes), I'll estimate.
32 kbps - 96 kbps: A small file (anywhere from 1,000 KB- 3,000 KB depending on the song length) that has a low quality sound. It might not be too noticable on your computer speakers, but if you turn up the volume or play a file that's 32 kbps on a stereo, you'll notice the difference. The sound will be fuzzy and distant, like you're hearing music from underwater. Some people can't tell the different in sound quality though, so to each his own. Uses about 18 to 33 MB per CD if ripped between 40-75 kbps in wma format.
128 kbps - 192 kbps: The standard rate at which music is usually ripped from CDs and floating around the internet in. If I can catch it, I will not upload a CD below 128 kbps in quality. Uses about 57 MB if ripped at 128 kbps in mp3 format, and 86 MB if ripped at 192 kbps in mp3 format.
256 kbps - 320 kbps: Extremely high sound quality in terms of transferring the CD to computer audio format. Uses about 115 MB if ripped at 256 kbps, and 144 kbps if ripped at 320 kbps.
470 - 940 kbps: On WMP, this is called Windows Player Audio Lossless. Mathemathically, the CD quality is lossless when converted to wma format. Uses 206 MB to 411 MB per CD.
For pragmatic reasons, I try to keep my music files between 128 kbps - 192 kbps. When I rip a CD onto my computer, I have it set for a default of 192 kbps.
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File Hosting Servers
The two most popular sites for hosting uploaded files are YSI and MegaUpload, then Filefactory, RapidShare, Sendspace, and UploadHut.
I am willing to upload to these servers:
Yousendit (YSI)
+Pros: No limit to the number of downloads per day, generally fast download speed.
-Cons: During the upload, there's no progress bar or file label (if the file gets cancelled halfway through the upload, I won't know which one it is until all the rest are finished since I typically upload CDs in groups of 10). Files will expire after 7 days or 25 downloads, whichever comes first. Sometimes blocks hotlinking. Hotlinking is directly clicking on the webpage address. (Ex: Clicking on http://www.yousendit.com) YSI blocks hotlinking to 'cut down' on the number of widely distributed illegal files, and it sometimes blocks files from being downloaded if their filenames contain words like 'Coldplay'. Even if given the chance, you should not hotlink files because it helps YSI trace the file distribution back to its source, and could result in communities getting shut down one day. To work around hotlinking, people either put the URL inside of an HTML tag by going <*a href="http://urlhere">Text to Link Here<*/a> or by going hxxp, which forces you to manually paste the link into the address bar to prevent hotlinking. If you use Firefox you have to change the hxxp to http before the address bar recognizes the link, if you use Internet Explorer it will convert hxxp to http automatically.
Megaupload
+Pros: Files stay uploaded until they are untouched for 30 days, there is a bar to show you the file's name and progress while it is uploading (it shows the speed at which the file is uploading, the estimated remaining time until the upload is complete, and at the end it shows how long the upload took).
-Cons: You have to wait a minute before you can download the file, you have to download it within a certain time after the page is ready or it refreshes itself when you click on the link and makes you wait for another minute, there is a maximum number of downloads per day (I'm guessing between 20 to 30 files though, I've hit it before but I don't know of that many other people who have). At times, megaupload can also be RIDICULOUSLY slow when you download a file, and that's why most people prefer to use yousendit.
---
SendSpace
+Pros: This is the most amazing server out there. There's a virtually limitless amount of downloads, and the file stays available until it's been inactive for 14 days. Progress bar during your upload to show you the speed and time left until the upload is complete. The download speed is as fast, if not faster than YSI's.
-Cons: None that I can see.
RapidShare
+Pros: Downloads reasonably fast, about the same speed or maybe a little slower than YSI files normally.
-Cons: You have to click on the 'free' button on the first page and then wait another 25-60 seconds for your download to appear. If you don't do either of those soon enough (I'd guess that you can't wait more than 3 minutes in between those two actions) then you get sent back to the first page. You can't have parallel downloads, so if you're downloading one file from rapidshare you can't be downloading another file from rapidshare at the same time. Restricts the number of downloads you do per hour depending on how crabby it is (it usually won't let me do more than 3). There's a maximum upload size of 50 MB per file, so sometimes CDs have to be split into two parts if they're uploaded to RapidShare.
FileFactory
+Pros: About the same download speed as YSI or rapidshare.
-Cons: You have to click past a shitload of ads and wait in between each page to get to your download. At least it isn't bitchy like RapidShare, FileFactory won't send you back to the start if you wait a while between clicking past each page.
UploadHut
+Pros: Stays on the server for at least a month.
-Cons: Maximum upload file size of 50 MB. The file is labelled with a random number, not with it's original title. Is meant to host images, so if you upload a song have to paste the file link into a program like Windows Media Player. (Ex: Take the address that ends in .mp3 and go File > Open URL. Once the song starts playing, go File > Save As to save the song to your computer.) If you upload a zip, it works like a normal file hoster and gives you a link to save it to your computer, but you still have to change the name of the file.
Right now, I am uploading CDs to Yousendit by default. Maybe if this journal gets popular one day and the 25 downloads are used up before it can expire in a week, I'll switch over to SendSpace.
-If you're curious as to why I don't just use megaupload since it's convinent to have a file available for 30 days, it's because I've found that people are typically not generous with sharing CDs unless you make a trade. Using yousendit means that people will have to regularly pay attention to this journal to make sure that the links don't expire during the short time that they're up, and if I find someone who has a CD I want, they'll be more likely to negotiate a trade with me, instead of flipping back through my journal entries to find the CD they want from my collection.
Compressed Files
Zip files: are a way of turning a folder into one file that is reduced in size. I will be using Winzip to compress a CD folder that contains the song tracks. CDs must be compressed before they can be uploaded to servers, since you can only upload a file, not a folder. In order to listen to the music, you must decompress the file into the original folder, which restores the song tracks to their original size.
Rar files: can compress files up to 8% to 15% more efficiently than Winzip. Still, it is popular to zip files on LJ because winzip comes with Mircosoft, and some people do not want to download .rar extractor programs.
**You can open both .zip files and .rar files with WinRar, download it here.**
I will zip all CD files uploaded to this journal.
///
Song formats
mp3: the universal internet audio file format. Any music program can either play mp3 tracks, or can convert mp3 tracks into the appropriate file type to be played.
m4a/AAC Audio: Real Player and Apple's iTunes can both play this file type. Incomptabile with Windows Media Player, but necessary for iPods.
wma: is mostly associated with Windows Media Player, but can also be played on Creative products. WMP rips CDs into this format by default (but can be changed by going to Tools > Options > Rip music) but this file type isn't popular on LJ, because it is incompatible with iPods.
.wav, .ogg, .mp4: Unpopular file types that I do not deal with.
My CDs available for download are either mp3, m4a, or wma. I upload mp3 by default and I will specify if files are ever wma or m4a.
-The only way I know of to convert wma to mp3 (if you know a good program feel free to comment) is to burn the wma songs to a CD, and then rip them back onto your computer as mp3s.
-To convert m4a to mp3, you could either use Apple's iTunes Library (I don't own this but I'd assume it can convert m4a to mp3) or download this program. My computer is maxed out on space so I don't have a file convertor, but someone recommended the second m4a-to-mp3 program to me so I'm going to assume that it works.
///
Song Quality
kbps: kilobytes per second. An average song of about 3 minutes ripped at 128 should be around 3,000 KB (kilobytes), I'll estimate.
32 kbps - 96 kbps: A small file (anywhere from 1,000 KB- 3,000 KB depending on the song length) that has a low quality sound. It might not be too noticable on your computer speakers, but if you turn up the volume or play a file that's 32 kbps on a stereo, you'll notice the difference. The sound will be fuzzy and distant, like you're hearing music from underwater. Some people can't tell the different in sound quality though, so to each his own. Uses about 18 to 33 MB per CD if ripped between 40-75 kbps in wma format.
128 kbps - 192 kbps: The standard rate at which music is usually ripped from CDs and floating around the internet in. If I can catch it, I will not upload a CD below 128 kbps in quality. Uses about 57 MB if ripped at 128 kbps in mp3 format, and 86 MB if ripped at 192 kbps in mp3 format.
256 kbps - 320 kbps: Extremely high sound quality in terms of transferring the CD to computer audio format. Uses about 115 MB if ripped at 256 kbps, and 144 kbps if ripped at 320 kbps.
470 - 940 kbps: On WMP, this is called Windows Player Audio Lossless. Mathemathically, the CD quality is lossless when converted to wma format. Uses 206 MB to 411 MB per CD.
For pragmatic reasons, I try to keep my music files between 128 kbps - 192 kbps. When I rip a CD onto my computer, I have it set for a default of 192 kbps.
///
File Hosting Servers
The two most popular sites for hosting uploaded files are YSI and MegaUpload, then Filefactory, RapidShare, Sendspace, and UploadHut.
I am willing to upload to these servers:
Yousendit (YSI)
+Pros: No limit to the number of downloads per day, generally fast download speed.
-Cons: During the upload, there's no progress bar or file label (if the file gets cancelled halfway through the upload, I won't know which one it is until all the rest are finished since I typically upload CDs in groups of 10). Files will expire after 7 days or 25 downloads, whichever comes first. Sometimes blocks hotlinking. Hotlinking is directly clicking on the webpage address. (Ex: Clicking on http://www.yousendit.com) YSI blocks hotlinking to 'cut down' on the number of widely distributed illegal files, and it sometimes blocks files from being downloaded if their filenames contain words like 'Coldplay'. Even if given the chance, you should not hotlink files because it helps YSI trace the file distribution back to its source, and could result in communities getting shut down one day. To work around hotlinking, people either put the URL inside of an HTML tag by going <*a href="http://urlhere">Text to Link Here<*/a> or by going hxxp, which forces you to manually paste the link into the address bar to prevent hotlinking. If you use Firefox you have to change the hxxp to http before the address bar recognizes the link, if you use Internet Explorer it will convert hxxp to http automatically.
Megaupload
+Pros: Files stay uploaded until they are untouched for 30 days, there is a bar to show you the file's name and progress while it is uploading (it shows the speed at which the file is uploading, the estimated remaining time until the upload is complete, and at the end it shows how long the upload took).
-Cons: You have to wait a minute before you can download the file, you have to download it within a certain time after the page is ready or it refreshes itself when you click on the link and makes you wait for another minute, there is a maximum number of downloads per day (I'm guessing between 20 to 30 files though, I've hit it before but I don't know of that many other people who have). At times, megaupload can also be RIDICULOUSLY slow when you download a file, and that's why most people prefer to use yousendit.
---
SendSpace
+Pros: This is the most amazing server out there. There's a virtually limitless amount of downloads, and the file stays available until it's been inactive for 14 days. Progress bar during your upload to show you the speed and time left until the upload is complete. The download speed is as fast, if not faster than YSI's.
-Cons: None that I can see.
RapidShare
+Pros: Downloads reasonably fast, about the same speed or maybe a little slower than YSI files normally.
-Cons: You have to click on the 'free' button on the first page and then wait another 25-60 seconds for your download to appear. If you don't do either of those soon enough (I'd guess that you can't wait more than 3 minutes in between those two actions) then you get sent back to the first page. You can't have parallel downloads, so if you're downloading one file from rapidshare you can't be downloading another file from rapidshare at the same time. Restricts the number of downloads you do per hour depending on how crabby it is (it usually won't let me do more than 3). There's a maximum upload size of 50 MB per file, so sometimes CDs have to be split into two parts if they're uploaded to RapidShare.
FileFactory
+Pros: About the same download speed as YSI or rapidshare.
-Cons: You have to click past a shitload of ads and wait in between each page to get to your download. At least it isn't bitchy like RapidShare, FileFactory won't send you back to the start if you wait a while between clicking past each page.
UploadHut
+Pros: Stays on the server for at least a month.
-Cons: Maximum upload file size of 50 MB. The file is labelled with a random number, not with it's original title. Is meant to host images, so if you upload a song have to paste the file link into a program like Windows Media Player. (Ex: Take the address that ends in .mp3 and go File > Open URL. Once the song starts playing, go File > Save As to save the song to your computer.) If you upload a zip, it works like a normal file hoster and gives you a link to save it to your computer, but you still have to change the name of the file.
Right now, I am uploading CDs to Yousendit by default. Maybe if this journal gets popular one day and the 25 downloads are used up before it can expire in a week, I'll switch over to SendSpace.
-If you're curious as to why I don't just use megaupload since it's convinent to have a file available for 30 days, it's because I've found that people are typically not generous with sharing CDs unless you make a trade. Using yousendit means that people will have to regularly pay attention to this journal to make sure that the links don't expire during the short time that they're up, and if I find someone who has a CD I want, they'll be more likely to negotiate a trade with me, instead of flipping back through my journal entries to find the CD they want from my collection.