Internet Underground Music
Steve Trokenheim - Northwestern University
Some time ago, there was a post here about something called the
Internet Underground Music something or other. It was an FTP site containing
songs and a program for PC's to play them. Does anyone remember where
this was ?
Steve
Robert Daniel Lord
Yup. Here's the info again.
And look for press coverage in hi-REZ, The Computer Paper (Canada),
Playboy <dunno why>, The San Jose Mercury News, et al.
One more thing, we just received source code for MPEG audio decoding so
playback on UNIX boxes is straightforward in addition to the Windows
player -- both available on the site.
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| | | \ \ / _ \ the net's first hi-fi music archive
| | | / Y \/ /_\ \ .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:
| | | / | \ | \ The Internet Underground Music Archive
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Internet Underground Music Archive December 14, 1993
contact: ia...@sunsite.unc.edu or mu...@cats.ucsc.edu
IUMA IUMA
99 Mill Road 217 Highland Court, Suite #3
Santa Cruz, California 95064 Santa Cruz, California 95060
(408) 457-8910 (408) 429-5476
*** THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST ***
*** IN THE INTERNET UNDERGROUND MUSIC ARCHIVE ***
Since November 1993, the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA)
has provided music distribution on the Internet by compressing audio with
the internationally standardized MPEG Audio format. With the Internet
experiencing tremendous growth (20 million current users and an estimated
1 million users added each month) we expect the Internet Underground
Music Archive to be accessible to the majority of people with computers
by the late 1990s.
Our goal is to maintain a publically accessible, fast Internet site that
archives the music, artwork and information of any musician, group or band
that wishes their music to be internationally and freely distributed. The
site is currently located:
===================================================================
by FTP: sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/electronic-publications/IUMA
by gopher: sunsite.unc.edu
select 5. Worlds of SunSITE
3. Browse all SunSite Archives
10. electronic-publications
2. IUMA
===================================================================
To have your music made available, it must be:
----------------------------------------------
a) original --- covers are not legal even though no money is involved. Feh,
I don't like it, but we will abide.
b) copyrighted --- this protects the artist making covers of the song
illegal. We have info about copyrighting in the
/IUMA/info/copyright directory. Use the word "Copyright" not "(c)"
because Matt, some guy in Michigan, mailed IUMA this:
>Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 15:11:25 -0500
>From: "Matthew H. Fields" <fie...@eecs.umich.edu>
>
> (c) is not recognized as a copyright symbol by the courts.
> But "Copyright", "Copr.", and a "c" in a circle are.
c) freely distributible - that means anyone can freely copy it, and freely
copy it for anyone they like. Oftentimes software authors allow their
'ware' to be distributed this way but demand/suggest/plead that you
mail them a check (usually far below what an equivalent commerical
product would cost). The concept is coined "Shareware". You may, in
your textfile, demand that after one week of playing that a listener
must either play your recording at the highest possible volume or
send a check/postcard/picture-of-them-as-a-child to you. They may
choose to ignore your feeble demand. Commerical music is not "freely
distributible" because it "belongs" to a label or publisher.
Clear? Good, then here's what to send:
--------------------------------------
Specifications
and Maximums Suggestions
-------------- -----------------------------------------------------
5 minutes of audio Choose one song recorded using the highest possible
fidelity. We will accept both cassettes and
compact discs. Our tape deck has settings for normal
bias, high bias, metal cassetes and DNR B and C.
8-1/2 by 11 inches Photographs, artwork, "cybersleeve," finger paintings,
of artwork what have you with high contrast for best scanning
results. Black and white results in smaller file
sizes which is good for the Net. If you wish, you may
also send a PC-compatible disk with the image in any
common PC format.
2 8-1/2 by 11 inch Whether or not someone on the net grabs a copy of your
sides of text music/art will pivot on this text because it is likely
to their first contact with you. IMPORTANT: This
would be the right place to include an address for
mailing lists/fan clubs/groupies, advertise for a
full demo tape, or beg for patronage <grin>.
Again, you may send a PC-compatible disk with the
text in any common format if you wish to save us
the trouble of typing it up. If you send a
handwritten note, please write legibly.
A personal note If your tape has more than one song on it, tell us in
to IUMA the note which one you want digitized. Be sure to tell
us what genre your music fits into, where the band
is from, when the song was recorded, and your
favorite farm animal so that we can organize and
cross-reference the archive.
PLEASE include phone numbers, times we can reach
you in an emergency, and a single name and mailing
address. If you have an email address, fax number,
etc. include it as well.
Any special recording instructions belong in the
note (i.e. use Dolby Noise Reduction C, use mono
recording because the original is mono, email me
once the song is online).
No money at this The IUMA is run by people dedicated to the
time but donations worldwide distribution of otherwise obscure
are accepted. bands and artists. Donations pay for not only
Donors receive the digitizing, compressing, scanning and typing,
first priority. but also for the maintanence and management of
IUMA as a whole. You can safely assume that we
spend about an hour to process, upload, and
archive your song, artwork and textfile. We think
US$20 is not asking too much. Foreign currency is
encouraged as it would be interesting. Checks
should be payable to IUMA and are not tax-deductible.
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We do have an /incoming directory for those on the Internet who can
perform their own conversion. However, we must insist that you first
compress your audio with MPEG, and we strongly encourage you to follow the
specifications detailed above.
If you need to have anything returned, please enclose a self-addressed,
prepaid, protective envelope. If you'd like a tape of the digitized song
returned, enclose an blank tape in addition to the return envelope. If you
have special needs, feel free to email ia...@sunsite.unc.edu or use the
address and telephone number above.
If you represent a label or more than a single artist, please
email/write/call us to discuss arrangements.
We look forward to hearing your music on the Net.
Sincerely,
Robert Lord Jeff Patterson
ia...@sunsite.unc.edu or mu...@netcom.com
ia...@cats.ucsc.edu mu...@cats.ucsc.edu
FTP: sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/electronic-publications/IUMA
_______ ___ ___ ___ ___ ______
/\______\\__\ /\__\/\__\_\ \/\_____\
\/__ __// / / / / / / / |
Internet __/ / / / /_/ / / / /_/ / / /_| |
Underground /\_\/ /_\ \ \_\/ / / / / / / ___ |
Music Archive \/______/ \______/\/__/ \_/\/__/ |__|
Internet Underground Music Archive
99 Mill Road, Santa Cruz, California 95064, U.S.A
Telephone: (408) 457-8910
After December 31st, 1993 use this address for quickest response:
Internet Underground Music Archive
217 Highland Court, Suite #3
Santa Cruz, California 95060
Telephone: (408) 429-5476
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_______ ___ ___ .
/\______\ /\__\ /\__\ . Internet Underground Music Archive
\/__ __// / / / / / . presents
/ / / / / / / / / .
__/ / / \/ /_/ / / . Frequently Asked Questions about IUMA
/\_\/ /_\ \ \_\/ / . version 1.0
\/______/ \______/ .
___ ___ _____ .
/\__\ \ \ /\____\ . contact: ia...@sunsite.unc.edu
/ / // / | . or by postal address:
/ / / / // / /| | . IUMA
/ / /_/ // / /_| | . 99 Mill Road
/ / / / // / ___ | . Santa Cruz, CA 95064 U.S.A.
\/__/ /__/ \/__/ |__| .
.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Last updated: 11/21/93
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Q. Why should I want my music on the net?
A. If you put your music on the net it will be available to approximately
15 million of the most 'connected' people in the world. Many of them
spend a lot of time listening to and discussing music. There are more
than sixty public discussion USENET newsgroups relating to music (not
counting alt.icelandic.waif.bjork.bjork.bjork).
A major university site <ftp.uwp.edu> carries lyrics, pictures,
playlists, reviews, magazine reprints and lists of mailing lists such as
the Indie-List, the Blue-Eyed-Pop (Bjork and her ex-band The Sugarcubes)
UK-dance, SF (San Francisco) Raves, and, without hesitation, more.
The tastes of Internauts are the likely most diverse, eccelctic, and
passionately held of any community you're likely to hang with.
Let's do a little cut-n-paste with just one mailing list's Frequently
Asked Questions, the Indie-List, so the unaquainted can get a quick
well-adjusted feel for netlife.
>It's cherubic! It's seraphic! It's omniscient when it comes to slack! It's
>EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT INDIE-LIST, but were too busy
>reading _Ben Is Dead_ to ask. By Mark Cornick, with contributions from Joshua
>Houk, Liz Clayton, Sean Murphy, and K. Lena Bennett.
>
>The Indie-List Digest (or Indie-List or I-L or whatever) is a semi-weekly
>(i.e. twice a week) indie music zine distributed via Internet. Yr typical
>issue features numerous reviews, with occasional interviews, scene reports,
>etc. Subscriptions are absolutely free. Reader participation is very highly
>encouraged!
[...]
What is the list about?
>"Indie" is short for "independent". "Indie music" is usually construed to
>mean "music released on independent labels." Indie labels are best defined in
>terms of what they are _not_: owned or distributed by one of the six "major"
>record companies, those being Sony/Columbia, Capitol/EMI, Bertelsmann Music
>Group/RCA, Time Warner/Elektra/Atlantic, Matsushita/MCA, and
>PolyGram/Mercury/London. These six labels are often called the "mersh" (for
>"commercial") labels. Mersh is the opposite of indie.
>
>However, this definition has some big holes in it. Many labels that are
>independently owned and operated in countries other than the United States
>(such as 4AD, Creation, and Beggar's Banquet) are distributed by major labels
>in the US. And besides, there are several groups signed to major labels today
>that still espouse the indie ethic. The success of Nirvana has resulted in
>many major labels signing up indie bands faster than you can say "smells like
>smoked sausages." Given the inevitable fact that most of these bands will end
>up *back* on indie labels after their first mersh-discs don't go gold, we
>shouldn't give up on them. (On the other hand, there are some bands on major
>labels that make really pathetic attempts to play up their alleged indie
>roots. Possible rule of thumb: Rockstar=mersh, not-rockstar=indie.)
This part of the FAQ lists other indie-related mailing lists through the
unjaded eyes of the Indie-List...
>- GRUNGE-L - list...@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
>Body of message: SUB GRUNGE-L Bruce Pavitt
>Occasionally grunge-related, but more often than not it's just a bunch of
>tangents. This is still a favorite of a lot of people, though.
>
>- 4AD-L - list...@jhuvm.hcf.jhu.edu
>Body of message: SUB 4AD-L Kelley Deal
>All things related to the 4AD label, as well as similar things like
>Slumberland, _One Last Kiss_, My Bloody Valentine, Too Pure, and their ilk.
>
>- NM-LIST - nm-list...@reef.cis.ufl.edu
>Eclectic "new music" list; wide variety of stuff discussed (recently, a lot
>of Tom Waits, f'rinstance.)
>
>- Hypnodrone - hypnodron...@gnu.ai.mit.edu
>Droney guitar bands such as Spacemen 3, Loop, Galaxie 500, et al. Unseen by
>me (Mark.)
>
>- Chugchanga - <write for more info>
>Indie music; much like what we discuss here, only daily.
These excerpts came from the Indie-List FAQ that I obtained via the large
university Internet site, ftp.uwp.edu. I, while typing this, took a look
there and found about 50 other FAQ files on topics from Indian-Classical
to Smashing Pumpkins. With a little more net- surfing, I find
information, lyrics and pictures of approximately 150 artists and bands
that begin with the letter 'a' alone. Any music, including yours
can find an audience on the Internet.
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Q. What is MPEG audio compression?
A. To lift directly from the MPEG FAQ (available from IUMA and elsewhere).
> Written by Mark Adler <mad...@cco.caltech.edu>.
>
> Q. What is MPEG?
>
> A. MPEG is a group of people that meet under ISO (the International
> Standards Organization) to generate standards for digital video
> (sequences of images in time) and audio compression. In particular,
> they define a compressed bit stream, which implicitly defines a
> decompressor. However, the compression algorithms are up to the
> individual manufacturers, and that is where proprietary advantage
> is obtained within the scope of a publicly available international
> standard. MPEG meets roughly four times a year for roughly a week
> each time. In between meetings, a great deal of work is done by
> the members, so it doesn't all happen at the meetings. The work
> is organized and planned at the meetings.
>
> Q. So what does MPEG stand for?
>
> A. Moving Pictures Experts Group.
What do you need a motion pictures group for? Because they don't just
research pictures and their compression, but its audio and its compression.
> Q. You didn't mention anything about the audio compression.
>
> A. Oh, right. Well, I don't know as much about the audio compression.
> Basically they use very carefully developed psychoacoustic models
> derived from experiments with the best obtainable listeners to
> pick out pieces of the sound that you can't hear. There are what
> are called "masking" effects where, for example, a large component
> at one frequency will prevent you from hearing lower energy parts
> at nearby frequencies, where the relative energy vs. frequency
> that is masked is described by some empirical curve. There are
> similar temporal masking effects, as well as some more complicated
> interactions where a temporal effect can unmask a frequency, and
> vice-versa.
>
> The sound is broken up into spectral chunks with a hybrid scheme
> that combines sine transforms with subband transforms, and the
> psychoacoustic model written in terms of those chunks. Whatever
> can be removed or reduced in precision is, and the remainder is
> sent. It's a little more complicated than that, since the bits
> have to be allocated across the bands. And, of course, what is
> sent is entropy coded.
Does that answer your question?
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Q. Not really. What's going to happen to my demo-tape if I send it to you?
A. Using Xing Technology's commercial software and and a high end
digital recorder (see audiophile specifications below) we record your
music to disk. Music recorded at this Compact Disc quality takes up 10
megabytes (MBs) per minute. So if a song is five minutes long, it occupies
50MBs of disk space -- that's more than most people have to spare,
much less want to transfer over the net, so we compress it using
the MPEG compression techniques described above. This is the same
technology that is used in VideoCD format, and very similar to that
found in Sony MiniDiscs (MD) and Phillips Digital Compact Cassette
(DCC) formats.
To quote the MPEG Frequently Asked Questions textfile again:
> Q. So how much does it compress?
>
> A. As I mentioned before, audio CD data rates are about 1.5 Mbits/s.
> You can compress the same stereo program down to 256 Kbits/s with
> no loss in discernible quality. (So they say. For the most part
> it's true, but every once in a while a weird thing might happen
> that you'll notice. However the effect is very small, and it takes
> a listener trained to notice these particular types of effects.)
> That's about 6:1 compression.
I've found that up to 11:1 or 13.7:1 compression on demo tapes is
acceptable quality-wise as the quality of the original is already limited.
Specifications of the Turtle Beach MultiSound card used to digitize audio.
64x oversampling (recording and playback)
8x interpolating filter (playback)
Signal-to-Noise -89 dB weighted
-86 dB unweighted
Total Harmonic Distortion >.01% weighted
>.02% unweighted
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Q. You mean that the audio quality is sacrificed for disk space?
A. Yes and no. CD quality sound is not available online yet. I just takes
up too much disk space. Cassette or FM radio quality is possible
through MPEG audio compression. A PC-compatible with the latest
generation of soundcards can even playback near CD quality from the same
compressed files. You can grab a few demos from IUMA (see below)
and judge for yourself, or a tape may be made available of artists
already on the net for just enough to cover our expenses.
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Q. Why is this free? -or- Why does this cost so little?
A. The cost is determined by the amount of work, that is, time, we spend
to digitize your music and the high quality hardware we use, not the
size of your potential audience. We think that this is a outrageous
opportunity for bands and artists and a great deal for the those we
service. We enjoy the music, you enjoy the exposure. At this time, a
donation is requested but not mandatory.
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Q. How do I know how many people have copies of the song?
A. Hmmm... We don't yet. One good way to tell how many people _like_ your
song is to include an address they can reach you at for more info
about the band. These are the only people that matter anyway, right?
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Q. I don't have a computer. How can I hear my online recording?
A. Include a blank tape and a prepaid, self-addressed protective envelope
along with your song and things and we'll dub you a copy.
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Q. I have a 486 and a SoundBlaster soundcard, how good will the sound be?
A. Well, that depends. Older (and cheaper) SoundBlaster\Pro cards are only
8bit, and some are even mono. The best you will be getting out of
these cards is roughly equivalent to AM radio. The music will
definitely be listenable, but you won't be hearing the full potential
of MPEG compression. If you have a 16bit SoundBlaster, you should be
okay. If you have an 8bit one, maybe it's time to invest in a new
sound card. (Orchid, Cardinal and MediaMagic are good choices for MPEG
audio as they have DSP chips that the Xing player uses to improve sound
sound quality significantly.)
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Q. Okay, I have a 486 and a good 16bit soundcard but no Internet access,
how can I get a copy of my song on disk?
A. Include four 3.5" high density floppies (or 8 3.5" low density floppies)
and again a prepaid, self-addressed, protective envelope with your song
and things.
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Q. So you want more than one return envelope?
A. No, just _one_ big enough to protect anything you might want returned.
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Q. Okay, what if I don't like the way my song sounds once it's compressed?
A. I don't know. We could re-record your song with equalization you
specify or with less compression. We could return your donation. Call
us. We are reasonable folks.
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.___ ____ ___ _____ _____
| | | \ \ / _ \ the net's first hi-fi music archive
| | | / Y \/ /_\ \ .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
| | | / | \ | \ The Internet Underground Music Archive
|___|______/____|__ /___|__ / bands/music/labels/images/bubbles
===================\/=======\/============================================
ftp sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/electronic-publications/IUMA -[rP]-
rL.
--
Robert Lord -- ia...@cats.ucsc.edu -- for IUMA info:ia...@sunsite.unc.edu
___ ____ ___ _____ _____
| | | \ \ / _ \ the net's first hi-fi music archive
| | | / Y \/ /_\ \ .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
| | | / | \ | \ The Internet Underground Music Archive
|___|______/____|__ /___|__ / bands/music/labels/images/bubbles
===================\/=======\/============================================
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/electronic-publications/IUMA "http rules!" -rP-