Overview
MP3 Underground is a brief, non-technical explanation of MP3 and Napster and their benefits, a look at the legal issues, and a short, concise overview of hardware requirements, MP3 players, cataloging software, on-line music database, rippers, encoders, and juke boxes. The book also includes a consumer's guide to the various MP3 players, an overall explanation of streaming audio, and how-tos for setting up your own MP3 site. The reader will be directed on how to hack past copy protections and sort through the legal and clandestine sources of MP3.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewHere's the real, unexpurgated deal on MP3. If you're a record company executive, you won't like this book -- the content, or the attitude.
ZD senior editor Ron White and his guitarist son Michael show you exactly how to find MP3 music, download it, use cool tools like Go!Zilla and CuteFTP, and much more. They'll help you uncover secret Napster servers (and bypass Napster watchdogs), converting CDs to MP3, keep track of your music libraries, and more. The book also includes reviews of the Web's 101 best music sites. Some, like Riffage, have collapsed in the great dot.com extinction, but most are still humming.
MP3 Underground comes with one of the most useful CD-ROMs of any book we've seen. MusicMatch, RealJukebox, and Napster are here, but so's a bunch of cool software you might never have heard of: Realizer, a WinAmp plug-in that makes your MP3s sound better; Total Recorder, which lets you record streaming media you're not supposed to be able to capture; Shuffler Music Converter for converting Microsoft's proprietary WMAs to MP3s; TextAloud MP3, which "reads" any block of text into an audio MP3 file you can listen to on the road. Mostly Windows, but lots of Mac stuff, too (sorry, no Linux). (Bill Camarda)
Bill Camarda is a consultant and writer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.