Building Your Digital Music Library
We have more options and variety of music available from online streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. We can listen from anywhere while on the go, just requiring a 4G LTE or WiFi connection. This was made possible because of digital music. The format is portable and very efficient when it comes to distribution and delivery. Digital music formats can be streamed or downloaded, not requiring any physical form like CD or USB thumb drives.
The CD was the essential digital music format in the 90’s. When the 2000’s came and the Internet’s bandwidth increased with broadband services, streaming formats became more popular. It has eventually become the replacement for CD music, as streaming formats provide more variety. A typical CD contains about 20 songs, depending on the format and song’s playing time. It is usually from the same artist or a selection of titles. Streaming format has no such limitations. You have a database of digital music available. Apple Music boasts 60 million songs while Amazon Music and Spotify have over 50 million songs. You don’t need to purchase the music either, but you can listen to it an unlimited number of times.
There are also apps that allow you to manage your digital music. When MP3 became popular, apps like Napster and Limewire provided a way to download the files using a peer-to-peer network. Napster would later be found in violation of copyright laws from lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and A&M Records. Napster did not copy the digital music, but it allowed the sharing of digital music without copyright licensing. Metallica was one of the early artists who found the distribution of their music before it was even released to be in violation of their artistic rights to their content. The music industry doesn’t benefit from the sharing of free music because the recording studios and the artists do not make any money. This had to be addressed moving forward with digital music.
It would be a loss to consumers if they cannot enjoy the benefits of the technology of digital music. That would become possible with streaming music services. Streaming providers license the music, and generate revenue through ads. They provide the music free, like with YouTube and Spotify, but their platforms target millions of users through ads in order to generate income. It was fair enough for the music industry, but licensing music rights is not that simple as Spotify would find out.
Streaming music providers also offer different plans, including premium subscription services. You can download the music and play it offline, but many prefer to stream since it can be more convenient like playing the radio. Perhaps that is the wide appeal for streaming music. It allows you to listen to the latest songs like listening to your favorite radio station. The only thing you have to do in order to access these streaming music services is to sign up and create an account that requires an e-mail address.
You can build your own digital music library which I break down into 3 parts:
- Music Format
- Apps
- Playlist
Digital Music Formats
Some people might confuse digital with playback. That is not correct because playback will always be analog for any type of audio. When we refer to digital music, we are talking about its format. These are computer files that are stored as bits of information. When music is digitized it is converted into a format that is stored on magnetic or solid state media. Thus, the format is digital but the playback to the speakers of an audio device is analog.
We have digital music formats (e.g. MP3, FLAC) and streaming formats (e.g. AAC, OGG). One of the problems that streaming digital music formats solve is copyright violations. By encrypting the music’s file format, it will not allow users to download the music directly for playback. It requires a decoder on the software or app to playback the encrypted music. There are third party digital music recorders that can copy the music’s playback, but not the actual format. This results in low quality audio most of the time since these recorders are just copying the analog playback of the audio from the app. To understand what a streaming format is, you need to understand bit rate and encoding.
Bit rate refers to the number of bits per second encoded in the digital music file. In general, the higher the bit rate the higher the quality. Encoding is changing the digital audio from one form to another, usually from uncompressed (raw audio) to compressed audio. The more compression in encoding, the smaller the file, but the lower the quality of the audio. This is ideal for streaming because it requires less bandwidth to download the data. The tradeoff is also called lossy compression (less quality) as opposed to lossless compression (more quality).
Here is a comparison of some digital music formats.
AAC — Advanced Audio Coding format. This is Apple Music’s default streaming format, which streams at a bit rate of 256 Kbps (Kilobits per second).
OGG — Ogg-Vorbis format. This is Spotify’s default streaming format, which streams at a bit rate of 320 Kbps.
WMA — Windows Media format by Microsoft. This uses DRM (Digital Rights Management) for copy protection. Bit rate ranges from 32 Kbps WMA Standard to 768 Kbps WMA Pro 9.
FLAC — Free Lossless Audio Codec format. High resolution audio with max bit rate around 36,864 Kbps or 36.8 Mbps.
MP3 — MPEG Layer 3 format. A common sound file format with a bit rate of 96 to 320 Kbps.
CD — Compact Disc format. High quality audio with a bit rate of 1,411 Kbps or 1.4 Mbps (according to Red Book specifications).
When it comes to audio formats, AAC is considered superior to MP3 and other formats because it has better quality at a similar bit rate. CD audio is considered high quality because it is not compressed, so it loses little detail other than from the analog to digital conversion. FLAC is considered high quality due to less compression, but requires more bandwidth since it creates larger file sizes. For streaming, AAC and OGG are the main formats used because of their speed and quality. When compared to CD audio quality FLAC is the closest, and can even exceed CD in terms of quality. Most compressed formats do not compare, but it may not even be noticeable unless you are a serious audiophile.
Digital Music Apps
In order to build a library of digital music, you need an app. This can be downloaded to your desktop PC, smartphone, laptop or tablet device. The app provides the interface to access digital music from a service provider like Spotify. Apps are available either from the Apple Store for iOS or Play Store for Android. The most popular apps for streaming include Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify. It can also be downloaded to computers from their website. A search function in the app allows users to look for the music they enjoy based on artist name, music genre and even the year of album release. Those are just examples of the criteria used for searching music.
If you have existing MP3 or other file formats already saved on a hard disk or other storage media, you can use your app to create a library of songs from these files. Organizing the files into folders or directories can be very helpful. Apps like iTunes allowed you to organize these files and load them to an external player like the iPod. You can also do the same with its successor, the Apple Music app with the iPhone. MP3 files can be played on popular apps including WinAmp (not as popular as before), Google Play and the open source VLC Media Player.
How about converting existing music from tape and CD? That is also possible with apps like Audacity, a free and open source application. Other apps include Garage Band from Apple and Windows Media Player from Microsoft. You can interface older devices to your computer and these apps will recognize the audio as input (refer to the apps documentation for further information). If you do an online search for “cassette player to USB” you will find available devices. You can even digitize audio from vinyl records. When digitizing the music, you can remove hiss and other noise and then choose a file format to save it. Audiophiles prefer the lossless compression of FLAC encoding, while DJ’s may prefer MP3 or AAC because of their flexibility and compatibility with many apps and devices.
There are also hardware music players which come with built-in apps that can play MP3 and other file formats. Popular back in the day was the iPod. There are different types available in the market. Just check your local computer or electronics store for the latest. The most popular hardware for digital music is probably something you already own … the CD player. Let us not forget that you can still keep your CD collection as part of your digital music library. The quality of CD music is still considered far superior than most digital music formats like MP3, so the CD version of your favorite song will sound a lot better.
You can import CD tracks to an app and then rip them to an MP3 or other file format. All you need is a CD player connected to your computer. Other computers used to have a built-in CD player, making it much easier to access. If your computer doesn’t have a CD player, you can purchase an external CD player that has a USB interface (Type A connector). For tape and record players, there are adapters that connect to a computer via USB as well. Once you are connected, let the app convert the audio input into a digital format output that you can add to your collection of digital music. Tape and record are easier to digitize, but some CD are not. This is because of DRM (Digital Rights Management) copy protection.
Converting from analog to digital music allows you to preserve your collection of classic songs. Due to the deterioration of materials used for tapes and vinyl, making a digital backup makes sense for archiving as well. Purists do prefer analog media with analog playback. You can enjoy the best of both worlds with your original content on tape or vinyl with a digital backup. There is more peace of mind knowing if the original suddenly stops playing (due to old age) you will still have a backup available.
The Playlist
Once you have your digital music ready, it is time to create playlists. The playlist groups your favorite songs together. For example you can create a playlist of songs from just one artist or a group of songs from different artists as well. Each app allows you to create unlimited play lists (depending on the app) which you can also share. What fun is there if you cannot share your playlists with friends?
On Spotify, there is a guide for creating your own personal playlists and how to share them. Sharing a playlist is made easy from your very own library of digital music. Your own library is a curation of the digital music you either own or have on a playlist. The information provided of the song in the playlist, includes artist name, song title, album title and year of recording. This is also called the metadata, which are important details encoded in the digital music file. You can view the metadata using most music apps and this allows you to organize your playlists.
In most playlists, especially if it was created from a streaming music app, the physical file is not stored on your device. A link is created to the actual file that streams from a server. If the playlist contains an actual MP3 file from your computer or storage device, then you do have access to the physical file.
Speakers Or Headphones
The playback quality will depend on your sound system. Tinny earbuds will not produce the same quality as a premium headphone. The frequency response from high fidelity audio systems along with CD and lossless quality digital music provides the best combination, but also the most expensive in terms of purchases. If you prefer listening solo and immersed, a good noise canceling headphone is ideal. Those who listen to music mainly to kill the time on a long commute can use headphones, earphones or buds that match the level of quality they go for. The average user does not really mind, but the serious audiophile has other ideas.
For the home, it is worth mentioning Speaker Assistants (e.g. Sonos) that can interface with a smartphone app and playback your music to external speakers. The old fashioned way is to connect your smartphone or computer via an auxiliary port to a sound system receiver for analog playback to connected speakers. Wireless speakers are also compatible connected either using WiFi or a bluetooth connection. Once again, the playback depends on your choice of quality you want to enjoy from listening to music.
Licensing Issues
If you intend to distribute or sell music from your digital music library collection, there are some things you need to understand. You can still do it, but if you get caught there might be consequences. First you need to get permission or a license from the artist or the artist’s recording company. Second, you must pay a royalty fee for using the song in your own content or if you intend to play it for commercial purposes, not personal. When you download the song from your app’s service provider, you are licensed to play the song for personal use only. The song cannot be played in a public or commercial event without notifying the artist, but this is a gray area. I am sure many people play music at parties or events without requiring permission from the artist. However, with video sharing sites like YouTube, it becomes a matter of content. Review the procedures for these platforms on the legality of sharing other content, including music. This article from Forbes may shed some light on the licensing situation.
Synopsis
From your smartphone or computer, you can create a digital music library of your favorite songs. You will need to install an app that connects to a streaming music service. You can download the songs for a fee, like with Apple Music, and add your purchased song to your library. If you are mostly downloading songs, you need to consider your storage requirements. Digital music songs can take up plenty of space once you reach a certain number of songs. Just to be sure you have more than enough storage, get an external hard drive that is 500 GB or higher. Avoid saving it on your local drive because you can quickly run out of space. Once you have access to the streaming service from your app, you can search for songs, build your digital music library and create playlists. The next time you are on a road trip, no more need to pre-load your favorite songs one by one when you can just load a playlist from your app.
