MP3: Online Music Pumps Up the Volume.

• Author: HAMERMAN, FRED
• Position: MP3 format makes it possible to download music from the Internet - Brief Article

When he wants to listen to some Led Zeppelin after a hard day in class, Elliot Stevenson of Tappan, N.Y., doesn't reach for a CD. He turns on his computer, clicks to the band's Web site, and downloads a song. Moments later, "Black Dog" is blasting through his speakers.

For many music fans, the ability to download music off the Internet seems like the best advance in audio since Grandpa packed away his scratchy LPs. The innovation that's responsible: MP3, a computer format that compresses digital information, making it possible to transmit sound better and faster.

MP3 Web sites have spread faster than hallway gossip, and the largest, mp3.com, offers some 56,000 songs. That's good news for unknown performers who need the exposure, but big marquee stars have also begun to appreciate MP3. Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette agreed to perform live over MP3 Web sites this year, and Public Enemy released its latest album on the Web last summer even before its CD hit the stores.

Not everyone stands to gain from MP3, however. Record companies, worried that their music is being given away free, robbing them of royalities, now have more to fret about: portable players like the Rio (below) that let people take MP3 music anywhere. At $200, they're still "a little pricey," says...