To get to listen to audio quickly, go to our quick setup guide.

The Web wasn't designed to move things around to a schedule.  That's why receiving sound and video directly is quite an achievement.  You have to play many incoming files, parts of the original entertainment that are broken up then stitched together in order to make a continuous audio stream to play on your computer.  You hear this scheduling going wrong when streaming audio jumps or skips.  If you are still using an ordinary telephone line to access the Web, the sound you hear in real time can be pretty ghastly, but at least it's enough to get a rough idea of the music.  On our site, you can hear a higher fidelity version by downloading an excerpt and then playing it.  Your computer's storage can deliver the music to a faster schedule than can the internet connection.  When you listen to sound immediately and in real time, you are simply compromising the quality you hear for the convenience of getting it NOW.

There are the two very distinct ways of receiving audio through the Internet.  One is to download music in the form of a sound file, which has the disadvantage that you have to wait until you have all the material on your computer before you can hear anything, which can take a long time for a long piece at high quality.  As a bonus, you end up with a complete piece of music that can stay on your computer, but you don't know whether you're interested until you can hear it.  Downloads can be paid for, usually online with a credit card, or free.  Free tracks don't help the traditionally starving musician put beer and hamburgers on the table, so the usual compromise is to offer an excerpt of perhaps a minute.

There is now big competition for the online audio business, which means that we have to deal with many file formats, each of which needs its own player/plugin.  Shockwave Audio and mp3 are two popular file types which can be downloaded, stored, and then played.  Both can also be 'streamed'.  Another possibility for both download and streaming is Apple's QuickTime format.  Plugins for both of these come installed in recent browsers, and readily available from the appropriate company.

Any time that you download a file, whether it is a piece of text, a picture, or a sound, it arrives as several data packets which are numbered and can be reassembled in the correct order to make a single file on your computer.  That's difficult enough.  But if you want to 'stream' audio, so that you hear it shortly after the click of a button, the timing of arrival becomes crucial.  When audio is 'streamed', you start playing the sounds before the whole file has arrived (in most cases you do not keep the file on your computer but simply play the appropriate sections as it passes through to virtual garbage).  A few seconds' worth might be stored in memory, as a 'buffer' against interruptions in the incoming stream, causing a short delay before you hear the initial sound. 

The most prominent streaming audio player is for RealMedia, offered by the company RealNetworks, which covers both audio and video.  It adjusts its behavior depending on what type of media it detects.  RealMedia files can be stored and played offline, but are not normally offered this way, since copyright material can be auditioned if it isn't left permanently on your computer. Recently, streaming mp3 has eroded Real's business (since it's free), and this is now what we offer on this site.

The phrase 'digital download' is often used to refer to the sale of a (usually music) file online, after which you download the track, hold it on your hard drive, and then have limited chances to copy the music to a permanent CD-R.  A typical pop song download (in mp3 or AAC/m4a format) takes less than half a minute using broadband.

At stereosociety.com, we try to accommodate a broad range of visitors who wish to listen.  We offer mp3 and m4a excerpts from every track, generally the first two minutes or so. 

For streaming audio, on our site we offer only mp3 format.  With so many formats and so many tracks, the clutter potential is enormous.
It also costs more to store and provide multiple options, which is why many sites offer just one. 

Players for all formats are available free, by download from the particular company's Web site.  Useful connections are to:

RealNetworks for the RealMedia Player for PC or Mac
Microsoft for the Windows Media Player for the PC
Microsoft for the Windows Media Player for Mac OSX
Macromedia for the Flash Player for PC or Mac
Apple for the QuickTime Player for PC or Mac

The Big Help Desk
in suggested reading order (links are provided between pages)
all photos by Jonnie Miles

Other useful pages:
How to play music
Music playback options at the Stereo Society
Audio quality
Mono compatibility
MP3 Software Player Review (2001)
Surround Sound: An Introduction

Home Albums Artists Contact Downloads Help Links New Shopping Words

We encourage shopping:
Why our universal CD price is so low
What you get in packaging
Why CDs sound better
Why you get almost instant satisfaction: wait just three days for REAL quality
We give away HUGE chunks of music so you can REALLY check it out

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