WINNIPEG - Developed in the era of dial-up Internet and 500 MB computer hard drives, the MP3 audio format was a big leap forward for music fans back in the day.
By heavily compressing an audio file -- removing 80 to 90 per cent of the data from a song ripped from a compact disc -- MP3 allowed music lovers to download a song within a now-laughable 15 or 20 minutes.
Why, you could store dozens or maybe even hundreds of tunes on the relatively small hard drives that computers had at the time.
The only tradeoff was reduced sound quality. Much of what was removed was the higher end of the audio spectrum.
So why, with today's high-speed broadband connections and massive hard drives, are people still using MP3s and similar so-called `lossy' formats, such as Apple's AAC?
Convenience and habit, according to one analyst, along with a willingness to accept a compromise in sound quality.
"You can go out there and buy all kinds of (high-end) audio equipment . . . for the audiophile market," Duncan Stewart, director of technology research with business consulting firm Deloitte Canada, said in an interview.
"There are people out there who care very passionately about what they put into their ears but, on the other hand, for 80 to 90 per cent of the mass market, (the MP3 format) is one that most people are relatively comfortable with."
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the approval by the International Standardization Organization of the algorithms behind the MP3 format. It occurred at a meeting in November 1991 in Japan.
By 1994, MP3 software started popping up on personal computers. Four years later, the first portable MP3 players were being sold (with a then-whopping 32 MB of internal memory). Napster followed the year after that, and the rest is history.
Other, high-fidelity formats came along in the ensuing years, but they didn't replace MP3 in the hearts and minds of the general public.
The Free Lossless Audio Codec, or FLAC, shrinks a song ripped from a compact disc by about half with no loss in sound quality. The result is a file about four times larger than the average MP3 file, but small enough to fit hundreds of songs on a 16 GB player, or thousands on a 64 GB machine.
Stewart, who says he personally notices a "flatness" to MP3 files, says consumers seem to care more about what they see than what they hear. While most people haven't demanded more from their sound quality over the past 20 years, TV viewers have latched on to high-definition television and are starting to snap up 3D sets.
"Human beings don't really work with our ears. We are perfectly willing to have a fairly degraded audio experience, but in terms of video, we're incredibly visual," Stewart said.
"The best example of this is when people buy computer screens, any kind of LCD screen. If there's even a tiny visual glitch in one corner, it will drive us completely out of our minds. Whereas an equivalent (problem) in audio, it really isn't that disruptive."
Still, Stewart is surprised that more music fans aren't opting for the lossless format.
"At Deloitte, every year, we do our series of predictions, and we often have predictions about the music industry. Every year, we look at them and say, `Is the audiophile going to come back, are they going to complain about MP3s?', and every year, we can't find any data that people actually care."
Those who do care say MP3s are a pale imitation of the original sound with telltale signs -- hissy high notes, a bass drum that lacks oomph, or just an overall thinness to the sound.
"I absolutely hear a difference," says Mike Ahern, a New York City audiophile with a huge music library. "It's in the high-pitched, higher-timbre instruments."
Ahern has installed third-party firmware on his iPod so that it can play FLAC files. He also has a smartphone with uncompressed music files on it, and has written to one of his favourite musical acts to request that they sell their music in FLAC.
Joe Breslin, a music devotee in Dallas, Texas, also gives MP3s the cold shoulder.
"The MP3 compressed sound . . . just seems not as full, at times tinny," Breslin wrote in an email. "MP3 compression only reproduces sounds up to around 15 kilohertz. The human ear hears up to and beyond 20 kilohertz. Why would I want to miss out on over a quarter of the original sound?"
But Breslin admits many people are unlikely to notice a difference, especially listening to music on the go in a crowded street or on a bus. The quality of amplifiers and headphones can also make a difference.
And size remains an issue. People with large music libraries may not want to be limited to hundreds of FLAC files when they can cram thousands of MP3s on their device.
Some manufacturers are catering to the lossless crowd, though. Cowon, Creative Labs and other companies offer music players that support FLAC as well as MP3 and other formats. They also promise better amplifiers and throw in high-end earbuds, but they haven't put much of a dent in the iPod's dominance.
The iPod supports Apple's lossless format, ALAC, but that usually requires ripping the music from a CD. The iTunes store only sells lossy music, not ALAC files, and the vast majority of music fans don't seem to mind.
It's why 20 years on, the MP3 shows no sign of fading away.
"No technology standard is forever and it's actually had a very good run," Stewart says. "But until people say, `You know what, this isn't good enough', I really don't see that kicking in."
