a bunch of questions about mp3s and stuff

  • Thread starter Thread starter DavidK
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DavidK

DavidK

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Hi folks,

I have recently been helping a friend put mp3s on the net, and have lot's of questions, so here goes:

1. What's up with MP3.com? Is it free at all, or for pay? I tried posting some stuff, don't know if it is going to work yet, because I guess it takes some time to get the tunes up there

2: I made a site on www.artistlaunch.com/cindywulff I cant get the songs to play in Lo-fi, and I don't know why. I have checked all the correct boxes for lo-fi play. One song, " working for a livin" did not upload, but the others can be downloaded, but no lo-fi play, and I dont have a cable modem on this computer.

3: I made a site on www.nowhereradio.com under cindywulff.
I put two songs on there, and can hear them on lo-fi, however the sound quality is so horrible in lo-fi that you can't even hear one lyric. The CD and the original MP3 are fine sonically, maybe not musically, but it shouldnt sound like this. Is that a problem with nowhere radio, or something else?

4: I quite often listen to songs in this forum on lo-fi. I discovered today, after listening to my friend's song, that there is a huge disparity between lo-fi and a download.
For a test, I downloaded Buck62's new post, and did an a/b with the download and the lo-fi. Great Ceasar's ghost! I will never again comment on a song without hearing a download, because I never realized how crappy the lo-fi really is.

5: Please let me know if you can hear the artist launch songs on lo-fi, hi-fi, or at all. Comments are fine, I had nothing to do with the songs, I am just helping a non-computer person, and actually it has been pretty interesting to learn this stuff for the future when I post my own atonal nerd-geek classical stuff.

Thanks,Dave
 
Question #3 is already answered; anything in Nowhereradio sounds like hell in lo-fi play
 
Lo-fi play is 24kbps converted from the original mp3, if the codec used for the original encode is weak, or old, then it doesn't sound good at all. Even with a good codec the audio quality is noticeably less than the original.

I recommend strongly that if you are on a low-speed connection to download the music and play it back locally. That way you get the original mp3 the way it was encoded from the artist. If that's poor, well, it's not my fault because it's the original! If you are on a hi-speed connection, than stream hi-fi, since it is the original as well.

There isn't any codec that sounds good at 24kbps, so you will notice just about any lo-fi will suck on any site. Unfortuneatly, for dial-up users, it's about all they can handle. I'm sure there'll be advances, but that'll take some time.

A few suggestions: Use a codec from the creators of mp3, or at least one based on that. AVOID the use of any Xing based encoder (real media bought them out long ago), it just plain sucks and is such an old codec that it destroys most of the music.

I prefer LAME out of the free encoders, as it has the best quality:size ratio. Encode your mp3's at 128kb/s using LAME and you will lose the least out of your audio. It also has the most standard/compatible format I have seen out of any mp3 codec.

Any questions? Just shout, I'll try and answer everything I can!

W.
 
Just wanted you to know that I attempted playback on artistlaunch. All of the hi-fi playbacks functioned, but none of the lo-fi's did.

I would suggest that the original mp3 might be in an older lossey codec. I ran 'internet.mp3' through my 'guesser' application and it came up that it might have been encoded using FhG (ACM or producer pro).

Maybe try (or suggest to the owner) to re-encode the mp3 using LAME, WinLAME, or MP3ENC to get rid of the extra chunks in the file, and clean it up substantially. My thought is that the re-encode process for the lo-fi on artistlaunch can't be done automatically because of the codec. (this happens with Xing codecs all the time on NoWhere). Therefor, the finished mp3 is unplayable because it couldn't be converted properly.
 
DavidK said:
Hi folks,

I have recently been helping a friend put mp3s on the net, and have lot's of questions, so here goes:

1. What's up with MP3.com? Is it free at all, or for pay? I tried posting some stuff, don't know if it is going to work yet, because I guess it takes some time to get the tunes up there

Mp3.com//is the best site to put your music .. it is free unless you want to pay for it ... only difference is that when you pay the 19.99 a month to them you get whatis called PAS Earnings ... that you can use for promotion on their site ... or you can let it build and they send out checks at the end of each quarter if you make over 50$ .. I suggest you not do Premuim artistservices (PAS) until you have been there a little while and see how you like the site ...

2: I made a site on www.artistlaunch.com/cindywulff I cant get the songs to play in Lo-fi, and I don't know why. I have checked all the correct boxes for lo-fi play. One song, " working for a livin" did not upload, but the others can be downloaded, but no lo-fi play, and I dont have a cable modem on this computer.

I dont have our music on artist launch .. I have heard mixed reviews about them .. they are supposedly really good in the promotion end with featured artsists and they have a radio concert thing there too ... so it is a cool site

3: I made a site on www.nowhereradio.com under cindywulff.
I put two songs on there, and can hear them on lo-fi, however the sound quality is so horrible in lo-fi that you can't even hear one lyric. The CD and the original MP3 are fine sonically, maybe not musically, but it shouldnt sound like this. Is that a problem with nowhere radio, or something else?


I never heard of this site til I came here to HR ..


there are other sites too that are good tools in promotion Dave ..

IUMA.com and Besonic.com .. Besonic is an awesome site .. I havent had any problems there at all .. and their chart system is the best I have seen ...

I hope this helps .. let me know if I can help with any thing else ...

lcrowley@mmcable.com

Lana
Click to expand...
 
Thanks a bunch, Waldo and Lana.

I have since found out that:

1. Nowhereradio stinks for lo-fi

2. Artistlaunch is not set up yet for lo-fi.

My friend is not looking for sales, she just needs a place to store music, and she will just send her friends links to a site.

I as well will be posting stuff soon. It is not for sale, I just want a place to store some stuff so my pals at HomeRecording can finally hear me play.

Waldo, the MP3s were made on Cake pro 9 with 128kbs at 44.1.
Should I do it another way? The original MP3s sound just fine
( just fine in a relative way). They were made off of a cd, put in cakewalk, encoded to mp3. The channels are at different volumes and not loud enough, but that is the way the cd is.

Lana (peace offering here), I will bite: Do you and hubby, father
whats-his-name, etc, actually make money off this new army thing? How is it done?

I am just a performer, but since all the FT crap came up, I am curious as to why you (and he) promote so hard. I am not dissing you or FT, I am just interested why you do the promotion so much. Is it actually working out? Are you making money off the deal?
I checked out www.theworstoftheworst.com andsome folks there are actually making cash for laughter's sake.

Again, I am not dissing you,if you can make a buck, so be it.

I am playing with YES on Friday. I dont mean to brag, but I am looking forward to this: I play with big bands a lot, but for once I can play with a band that I like. Cheers, Dave
 
Cake Pro uses an older codec if I remember right. You may want to try using LAME on a redbook WAV, re-upload them when you have done this and check out the difference. Should be a link on NoWhere under the help section (addressing some quality issues). 24kbps files are always going to sound awful compared to the original, but keep in mind I am following law, RM issues, compatibility, etc. etc. (unlike certain 'other' sites).

Some day, I'll get some help running NoWhere and I'll be able to persue creating better codecs that people will actually want to use, but until then, I've got 19 hour days to take care of first... lol

It's tough being in competition with companies that have billions of dollars and thousands of employees behind them when you are one guy with less than pennies to his name ;) But I sure as hell try.
 
lol...

Father Time is not my hubby !! ... ackk

My Hubby's name is Randal ... :)


I make 5% of his earnings ....for my promotion of his music ...

I am not in it for money ...

I am a fan first and a artist second ....

I am a songwriter first and an artist second ...

I love music .. when I was approached about becoming an NMA, my first instincts were to say no .. because I promote all music .. if you go and look at the Bulletin board at Mp3.com and you see my threads there you will most of the time see me promoting other people rather than myself ....

to me and Randal, my husband, this was and isnt about the money ... it is about the art of music ... we both love it ... and will fight to the ends of the earth promoting it ...

Independent music to us is the backbone of music today ..

no offense taken at all ... good luck to you in music ...

and please, don't take everything you hear from a few people who are driven by hatred as truth ....

since you dont know the whole story as I, you cant sit and judge someone by heresay ...

Lana
 
lol.. ok .. I was like Ackkk .. lol


althogh I love him dearly as a friend .. ummmm I am VERY much in love with my hubby .. :) :) :)
 
David...

The difference between the lo-fi and hi-fi versions of songs is like night and day.

Now, you CAN get a site on MP3-dot-com for free, but they'll make you wait forever to post your tunes and God only knows what other hoops they'll make you jump through to get your tunes properly situated on your page.

I've heard a lot of people complain about them charging 20 bucks a month to give you a nice little page to feature your music... but, you gotta remember, they just paid out a 100 million dollar lawsuit and banner-ads just ain't selling like they used to.

I would also think that the $20 fee gets rid of some of the riff-raff, too.

Is MP3-dot-com worth $20 a month?

I guess it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Guys like Teddie (SmartApple) do quite well (.... and deservedly so!) but, the ones who are doing well spend LOTS of time promoting their music and they work hard to put out good songs.

As for me and my partner, we're happy if we make enough money to pay our monthly fee from the "pay-for-play" thing. If we sell a few CD's then that's great! :)

Lately though, we just like putting out our music to see what people think and hopefully to reach them on some emotional level. A song like "Angel Child" was written to provoke thought and wake people up, whereas the song "Doin' Nothin" is a song that EVERYBODY can relate to... because we all hate to get up and go to work.

That's the beauty of being an independent artist.
You don't have deadlines and there's no limit to the subject matter of your songs. ;)

Hell, we've covered 4 or 5 genres on the 7 songs we've posted on our site and we still have another 5 left from our first CD that we haven't even put up yet!

BTW, we're working on a new song that would sound great with some violin parts in it.

Does that offer still hold?

Let me know. :)


Buck
 
You bet, Buck, just as long as there is a slice of pizza waitin for me. Or better yet, some vietnamese from one of those joints on argyle street.

I heard the Dan Ryan shut down the other day. That must have been a pretty site.

Thanks to all for the MP3 info. I am actually doing this for a friend,as nobody would ever buy my crazy classical stuff. She is not interested in selling CDs, she wants to sell songs and have others record them, as she is a pro French horn player, not a singer. She is also computer-shy, so I dont think she has the know-how or the patience to promote her music on MP3.com.

Anybody have any ideas on promoting just the songs and not the singer? I saw some of the other stuff, like taxi, etc, and I am trying to get her to steer clear of that stuff, because I think she would just be throwing her money away.

I think the best way to get her songs to the right people is to use our Union Connections (we are both members), but to be brutally honest I don't know if she has any material strong enough yet to be considered.
Any ideas are welcome.
 
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