Valerie Cowan's Web World

ACCORDING to the latest survey, there are three little letters which are exciting internet users more than s-e-x: MP3.

It is allegedly the most common word typed into internet search engines - but what is it?

Basically it's technology which allows internet users to download music of CD quality direct from the web onto their hard drive, or onto a portable MP3 player.

And it has the potential to be a major problem for record companies, as many of the websites offering MP3 tracks do so for free.

Research company Market Tracking International believes that by the end of 1999, there had been one billion illegal downloads from the internet. That's a great deal of money that the record companies are missing out on, and the music industry is moving against these illegal sites.

What you can do legally is download songs straight from the internet from sites like MP3.com. Well-established artists usually sell each song for about £1, which makes building up a CD-sized album the same cost as a CD.

The advantages are many. The cheapest portable MP3 players go for about £50 and you can make any compilations you want. Players are getting smaller all the time.

So does MP3 mean the end of the record store? Not at all, according to Simon Dornan at Virgin Megastores.

"There is no doubt that it is the future, the next generation," he said. "Downloading music like this has a future but there's still tons of people who haven't got the equipment to do it and it's a long way off.

"The British love browsing through shops. It's certainly not going to signal the death of the record shop in the short term and there will be places where you come and download stuff.

"When the copyright is sorted out, it's a great way for people to buy music. Stores will become like internet cafs, only nicer."

And he pointed out that Virgin already stocked MP3 players. "It just exhibits the fact that we are not afraid of it," he said.

David Freddi, internet equity analyst at Market Scope, agreed. He said: "It just expands the industry. I could envisage a situation in 10 years' time where you would not have CDs but a complete subscription to an MP3 company. Whether you are either at home or travelling, you could get your music over the phone. But I would not expect to see it mainstream for at least six or eight years.

"It's like saying, does Amazon kill off all the book stores? In the short term it only expands the market because it makes music more accessible and cheaper." But don't rely on the record companies to continue letting everyone get away with free music, warned Simon Dyson, music market analyst at Market Tracking International.

At the end of March a group which formed in February last year called Secure Digital Music Initiative, made up of record companies, technology firms and online companies will come up with a way of ensuring that music files can be kept secure - in other words, that music on the internet will have to be paid for.

If you want to have a go at using MP3, you'll first need an MP3 player, such as Sonique, available from http://www.sonique.com.

There are hundreds of websites offering MP3 tracks to download but two of the best starting places for novices are MP3.com (http://www.mp3.com) and Lycos' MP3 site (http://mp3.lycos.com).

Both offer plenty of music and clear instructions on how to get it.

Tom in tune with site

TOM Jones is enjoying a new lease of life thanks to duets with some of today's top stars on his album, Reload.

He's got a funky official website, too, with audio and video clips to enjoy. http://www.tomjones.com

Pull the udder

ALL Cows is a site for those who love cattle and everything to do with them. There's a new picture of a cute cow every month, cow screensavers and the latest cow news.

http://www.allcows.com

Find your Valentine

LOOKING for someone special to share Valentine's Day with next month? Try our online dating service, Two's Company, available through our This is Lancashire website.

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.