DOWNLOAD OF CONTROVERSY; MP-3 FORMAT MAKES IT EASY TO MOVE MUSIC.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

It's the biggest jukebox in the universe, with every kind of music you could ever want sitting there, free for the taking. And it's driving the record industry crazy.

Do you like Pearl Jam, or Madonna, or Alanis Morissette? Most of their latest music hit the Internet months before the albums were officially released.

The tunes are out there, often converted to a compact, good-quality computer audio format called MP-3, and tucked away on some college mainframe system, or someone's fan site, available with just a few minutes of downloading.

Staring at the proliferation of thousands of free copies of music they've labored long and hard to produce, record companies worry that the Internet will kill their business.

Not only won't the record labels see a dime for all those pirated copies, neither will artists who sang and played on them, nor will the people who wrote the songs. Neither will the companies that normally would distribute those records, nor the retailers that would sell them.

In fact, the entire, enormous food chain that is the nation's music business fears starvation by Internet. With nothing more than a basic computer, an Internet connection and some freely available software, virtually anyone can make endless digital copies of any CD or other sound source, then ship them all over the planet.

Stop the music?

``Do you need record labels? Do you need record stores?'' asked Bruce Weber, a Grammy-winning producer and co-owner of Weberworks, a small record label. That's what record companies are wondering, even as their representatives scour the Internet, trying to scrub it clean of illegally copied music.

It won't be easy.

On college campuses, where high-speed Internet connections are common, a student such as Northwestern University junior Chris Ward from Valencia can quickly find and download a pirated version of a song, then have his computer play it whenever he'd like.

Ward said his computer has about 50 MP-3 song files, none of them legally obtained. Some of his MP-3s, from up-and-coming band Guster for instance, have led him to pay for the group's music.

But most are by bands whose music he otherwise doesn't much like, such as Queensryche and the Scorpions, and whose records he wouldn't otherwise buy.

``This music is something I enjoy, but I wouldn't want to spend money on it,'' said Ward. ``It's just a great bonus for music you can listen to for relatively little hassle.''

When it's time for an all-nighter, Ward said, he turns on his computer, tells it to start playing his personal jukebox of songs, and starts writing.

People like Ward are part of an Internet revolution in music that has riled the record business and threatens to change its structure radically over the coming years.

That's because once a piece of music is turned into an MP-3 or some other digital format, it can be easily copied and moved around the Internet at virtually no cost.

``Three-fourths of Pearl Jam's last album was on the Internet in December, and it wasn't supposed to hit stores until when, March?'' says Brandy Thomas, CEO of Cyveillance, which works for the Recording Industry Association of America, ASCAP and other organizations to track down illegal digital music, movies and other intellectual property on the Internet.

All you need is software

The ease of copying and distributing illegal music is radically different from the old days of vinyl, where pirates need access to expensive record-pressing machinery.

``There was a pretty big barrier to entry there,'' said Todd Steinman, Warner Bros. Records vice president for new media. ``There were very few pirates that would want to spend $50,000 or whatever it was to build a pressing plant. Now all you need is Soundforge software and an Internet connection.''

Ward and many other MP-3 fans go to Scour.net, the Westwood-based Web site that makes it easy to search for audio files, even just for MP-3 files, as well as still pictures and video files on the Net.

Using Scour to look for songs by Grammy-winning singer Beck, for instance, a quick search turns up links to 100 MP-3s, including live recordings he's never officially released. The year-old Scour has quickly become a darling of MP-3 fanatics.

And as far as Scour president Dan Rodrigues is concerned, ``MP-3 is the best downloadable music format out there in terms of quality.''

Rodrigues and others said they believe MP-3 will win out over more secure alternative formats, such as Liquid Audio and a2b, because it's not owned by any private company. And they say the record industry's ire is misplaced.

``It isn't the technology that should be questioned,'' said Brian Litman, president and CEO of PlayMedia Systems, which owns the technology behind the widely downloaded Amp series of MP-3 player software.

``The bigger issue is why people would use the technology in ways that could be construed as illicit,'' Litman said. ``Our position is the growth of the MP-3 phenomenon is symptomatic of bigger problems faced by the major (record labels). In a world where distributing digital content can be as easy as sending e-mail, you have to rethink what you're doing.''

MP-3 boosters

A group of technology and small music companies recently banded together to form the MP-3 Association to further the use of the format.

``There's a huge opportunity in online music,'' said Steve Grady of online record label GoodNoise, an association member. ``We feel like the format is already out there, and consumers are using it.''

GoodNoise sells MP-3 songs from artists such as Frank Black for 99 cents each, reasoning that it's better to join 'em if you can't stop 'em. It recently acquired other online companies with rights to music from artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Patsy Cline, Ray Charles and Billie Holliday.

``Fans don't have access to legitimate content on MP-3,'' said Gene Hoffman, GoodNoise's president and chief executive officer. ``MP-3 is never going to go away - the technology is there and available, and you might as well make it easier to buy it than to steal.''

Platinum Records announced this week that it will give away MP-3s by prominent artists, but only one song each from four artists at a time - and for only two weeks per song. Company officials said the marketing and promotional value of such releases outweighs any concerns about their proliferation on the Net.

``I don't look at the piracy of this,'' said singer Taylor Dayne, one of Platinum's first four artists to give away a downloadable song. ``I look at this as a giant radio station. It's a promotional tool for me.''

That's nothing but good news to MP-3 boosters like Michael Robertson, president of MP3.com, an all-in-one Web site with links and reviews to MP-3 software, hardware, recordings and much more.

``What you see is fear,'' said Robertson of the industry's concerns. ``If you do it right, you'll sell more music than ever.''

But bigger record labels, with more to lose, are struggling to figure out how to use the Net to sell records without losing control over their products.

Digital alternatives

The companies that provide more secure alternatives to MP-3, such as Liquid Audio and a2b, believe that their products will make it possible to widely expand digital distribution of music without killing the record companies.

``We believe downloadable music is a viable, large channel for distributing music,'' said Howie Singer, a2b's chief technical officer.

``But if you're a record company, I'm not sure you're all that anxious to use MP-3s,'' Singer said. ``The reason is not because MP-3 is not good. The technology is innocent. But many of the major record labels are reluctant to release more music in MP-3 because they don't want to encourage more illegal releases of their product.''

Amplified.com is one of several companies using the more secure alternatives to sell songs. It has cut deals with smaller labels such as Beggars Banquet, Del-Fi, Alligator and 4AD to sell 99-cent Liquid Audio versions of individual tracks from artists such as Dead Can Dance, John Cale, Dick Dale and the Cult.

One of Amplified.com's investors is Dutch electronics giant Philips, which is giving away certificates to 30 free songs with the purchase of its CD-recordable drives, said Amplified.com's Frazier Hollis. The drives, which cost around $300, can be used to make playable copies of music downloads.

The bigger record labels have been more cautious, announcing deals that allow you to listen to music but not get digital copies of it on your computer.

Sony, for instance, announced this week that it will offer a ``jukebox'' service that allows you to pay $2.50 to listen to 10 songs as much as you want over a 24-hour period.

Capitol Records also announced it will make three or four songs available for listening from each of its new releases in coming months, said Mark Cuban, president of Broadcast.com, which will carry the music.

``You can listen to it, but you can't download it,'' Cuban said. ``That'll lead to lots more sales. It's all about selling CDs.''

Warner Bros. Records makes a single song at a time available for listening, but not downloading, on its artists' Web sites. It has no plans to sell online copies of its music.

``We're kind of taking a wait-and-see approach,'' said Warner's Steinman. ``We want to have our artists and copyrights protected. We want to use the Web to its fullest market potential but don't want to destroy the commerce that surrounds the music business now.''

Listening on the Internet

If you're interested in checking out the world of MP-3s and competing technologies, start with some of these sites:

Scour.Net (www.scour.net) scours the Internet for audio, video and still-photo files in Web sites, shared Windows files and FTP sites all over the universe. Lots of search options, including by format.

MP3.com (www.mp3.com) aims to be the site for all things MP-3, with links to all the encoder and player software you might want for whatever kind of computer, legal MP-3s, music news and much more.

Liquid Audio (www.liquidaudio.com) the home site for one of two competing audio formats to MP-3s. Get their player software here.

a2b Music (www.a2bmusic.com) is the home site for the other major MP-3 competitor format. Get the player software and find links to a2b-encoded music by artists such as Tori Amos, Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz.

Audio Explosion (www.audioexplosion.com) has created another proprietary music delivery system, called Mjuice. The company plans to launch a separate site this month at www.mjuice.com.

MPMan (www.mpman.com) includes information on one of the first MP-3 portable players, the MPMan, a credit-card-size player that holds about an hour of music, and plenty of MP-3 resources.

Diamond Multimedia (www.diamondmm.com) is the maker of the Rio, a tiny machine that can download MP-3s from a computer and allow them to be played anywhere.

Norris Communications (www.norriscomm.com) is making an alternative to MP-3-based players using a different audio compression technology.

Amplified.com (www.amplified.com) sells about 6,000 Liquid Audio tracks from a variety of artists.

AudioSoft's CityMusic (www.citymusic.com) includes a showcase for music by the band Yes, and, thanks to its Swiss heritage and a deal with French label F Communications, a terrific collection of European electronica music for sale digitally.

MusicMatch (www.musicmatch.com) provides one of the nicer software packages for creation, management and playback of MP-3s on PCs. The company's music store sells 20,000 MP-3 tracks. MusicMatch comes bundled with the Rio.

- David Bloom

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

Photo: (1) Diamond Multimedia's portable Rio player stores MP-3 files so they can be played away from a PC.

(2) `I don't look at the piracy of this. I look at this as a giant radio station. It's a promotional tool for me.'

Taylor Dayne

Platinum Records artist on the company's decision to distribute songs in the MP-3 format

Box: Listening on the Internet (See Text)