MP3.com Removes "High-Bandwidth" Streams

Posted by Hemos on Monday June 30, 2003 @11:58PM from the what's-the-future dept.

mshiltonj writes "I noticed today that mp3.com no longer offers high-bandwidth streams for its genres or stations, although it looks like artists' playlists and individual songs are available in high bandwidth. mp3.com has lots and lots of free music that was free and legal to listen to online, and a good number of my "music bookmarks" were on mp3.com. I'll live (I've still got my favorite stream), but I don't think it's a good sign. Is streaming music doomed to die, not because of RIAA litigation, but because of expensive bandwidth costs?" I don't think bandwidth will be the determining cost - that's a price that has been falling and will continue to fall. But are things like iTunes store the future, or is it streaming?

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Use Ogg! by malaba · 2003-07-01 00:20 · Score: 0, Offtopic

I find that Ogg at 64kbit/s VBR (variable-bit-rate)
beat mp3 at 128kbit/s (constant-bit-rate)

That mean 50% saving already.
And for broadcast that don't need high quality
you should check Ogg as low as Ogg 32 kbit/s VBR.
Astounding!

I made my test with mp3 vs Ogg from 32 kb/s to
~200 kb/s and ogg beat mp3 at low bit rate.
(at high bit rate any codec will do anyways...)
When I say beat I mean "kick the crap out of mp3
really hard!" 32 kb/s to 64 kb/s mp3 is a no-no
even for my grand mother.

So why these brodcast doesn't use Ogg ?
Also it is patent free, and quite well supported.
(Winamp support it natively and by default)

my 2 cent