Extract from Affinity 6: 14th October, 1996 The MP3 Arena by Conrail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÛÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ Ü²²ßß Ü²²²² ܲ ßܲ Ûß Þ²² Üß ²²Ý ²² ²² ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ß±Ý ± Þ±± ±± ±± Ü ßß ßß ±± Üþ ßþ Üß ±±ÝÜßß±±ßß±±ßß Ü± ÜÜ ÜÜ Ü± Üܱ±Ü ÜÜ ÜÜþ Ü°ß Üßßßß°°° Þ°Ý Þ°Ý ß°° ß°°°Üß°°° ß°° ßß°°ß Ü°ß°° °° Ü°Ý Üß °°Ý Þ°Ý Þ°Ý Þ°Ý °°ß Þ°Ý Þ°Ý Þ°Ý ß Þ°Ý °° ÞÛÛ Üß ÞÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÞÛÝ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÞÛÝ ÞÛÝ ÛÛ ÞÛÝ ÛÛÜ Üßß ÛÛÝ Üß ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ Ü ÞÛÝ ÞÛÝ Ü ÛÛ Ü ÛÛÜÜß ÞÛÛ ÜßÛÛ ß°°°°ßß ß°°ß Þ°Ý Þ°Ý ß°°ß °° °°ßß ß°°ß ß°ß ß°°ß °° Þ°Ý Þ°Ý Þ°ÝùAceù ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß Ü±ß ±± ±± ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß Ü±ßßß ±± ßßßß ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ²²±° ±±Ý Ü±ß Ü±ß °±²²ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ²²±° ±±Ý Ü±ß °±²²Û ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ß²ÜÜ²ß Ü²ß ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ß²²²²ßß ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article: The MP3 Arena Author: Conrail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As we move into the 1997 year of the scene we have seen the rise of a new set or branch in the warez arena. This field is the MP3 file industry. It was started off about by CDA "Crack 'da Audio" about 2 months ago. After CDA's founding by NetFrack the MP3 industry seemed to take off. CDA released 90 .MP3's in only 2 weeks. Soon after CDA came DAC "Digital Audio Crew". It seemed at first that these two groups were off to a bad start, with DAC taking over CDA's channels twice. Many people thought these two groups should just merge and make one powerful force. But also there was the view that DAC was just a 'challenge' for the MP3 giant CDA. Well, if someone comes up to you and says, "Got any MP3s?" and you say, "What the fuck are they?" Then you need to know some basics about what an MP3 file is. Having joined CDA when it was 2 weeks old I think it is right for me to tell you what they are. MP3 files are created by getting an encoder and a ripping program. During the music CD ripping process a sound card or music device is not used at all. The data goes straight from the CD to your HD. At this point the sound has literally not changed. Once on your HD it is in the Wave format. That is what the encoder is for. It converts the 50MB or so Wave file into a 5MB MP3 file. The best part about MP3 is that the quality is great and the files are so small. Many people, from experience, have told me that if you rip from a CD-R(writeable CD-ROM) then the quality is REALLY great. I think I need to get a CD-R before I even think about getting them to rip. Also the best program to rip is Corel. This is what one CDA member says about Corel: "Thanks Corel Multimedia! For making the best Audio ripping program around!" Ever since CDA and DAC stopped fighting and got down to hard business many people found out about the MP3 scene and formed new groups such as RNS, Independent, CEA, MTDS, RNS, TWB. All these groups have space on WD: World Denomination, which has the largest collection of MP3 files. There is also The Abyss owned by NetFrack, CDA's president. Today the largest MP3 group is the one and only CDA. Although CDA was off to a good start they had their ups and downs. For example people were treated bad and things were not getting done. But today, CDA is kicking serious ass, with more and more people coming and ripping under the CDA name. Well, not to be bias against the other groups, RNS is also doing very well. Although many people do not know about them, they have the largest amount of files in their directory on WD. The only official MP3 offer channel is #CDAfiles. When it was first created it was only open to CDA offer bots. After CDA realised that the channel was not working on only a few bots it was opened to all groups to offer. #CDAfiles is sort of like how #fatefiles was. Many people come to offer regardless of the CDA in the channel name.