Streaming Audio Tutorial Page 8 — Other Tools and Audio Formats RealNetworks' proprietary high-quality audio codec (Cook) is technically "better sounding" than MP3, as is Microsoft's Windows Media and the QDesign codec used in QuickTime. Why, we hear you say, don't we use them instead? Glad you asked! Since these codecs are not open source, their use requires licensing and that typically means you end up paying for the software to run them. The MP3 codec is practically free in comparison, or at least cheap enough for software developers to provide tools for next to nothing. Besides requiring proprietary players to play the above-mentioned proprietary codecs, there are other reasons to avoid these better-sounding versions. If you want to run a RealServer, for example, you have to pay a per-stream (per concurrent listener) license fee for anything over the freebie 20-stream version, and it's expensive. RealServer's top-of-the-line, 400-concurrent-stream product is a charming $54,420. Windows Media is free, but requires you to run Windows NT which is (to say the least) not desirable to many (and costs hundreds of dollars more than Windows98). The Quicktime server is free, but Macs aren't known to be the most stable server platform. The Unix versions are, well, not easy to use. But those are reasons, not excuses. Honestly. If you want to stream other people's music without purchasing your own ASCAP/BMI licenses, you might find it worthwhile to use a site like Live365 or Wired Planet. They handle all the paperwork concerning copyrights. They also provide the bandwidth required to stream to thousands of listeners. This alone makes them a good choice, especially if you use a dialup modem or, gasp, have a popular enough radio show to require big bandwidth. To last page of Streaming Audio To next page of Streaming Audio Back to the HTML Home Page