Many college music majors are arriving on campus with continually decreasing knowledge of, and even interest in, the music literature that has traditionally been considered essential to the study of music as an academic discipline. At the same time, many of these students are arriving with a continually increasing knowledge of, and interest in, emerging technologies, especially those involving personal computers. A typical remedy for the first situation is the requirement for all music majors to take a prescribed sequence of music history and literature courses to earn an undergraduate degree in music. A major component of these courses is the requirement, through careful and repeated listening, to become familiar with a list of masterworks that the professor considers important and/or illustrative.

Traditionally, students enrolled in music history and literature courses are asked to spend time outside of class listening to recordings of pieces on which they will be tested. This requirement is intended to allow the students to become acquainted with the literature that they are expected to know. This method of study can present problems for several categories of students who are becoming a larger and larger population in college music programs. Students who commute long distances or those who have time pressures and commitments from sources other than school would benefit from having recordings of required pieces available to them at home and at all times of day.

A technique for distributing high-quality audio files over the World Wide Web has recently been developed and used by students and instructors in the Music Department at Southwest Missouri State University. Because the recordings are online, they can be delivered to students at any time and to almost any place they are wanted. This method raises several serious technological and legal issues that must be considered carefully by anyone contemplating adopting a similar method.

Among the first and most serious issues facing those involved in the design of this system were the interrelated issues of file size and audio quality. For the system to be effective, the students needed to hear relatively high-quality audio. The problem with high-quality audio files is that they typically require large amounts of storage space. This problem is made manifest in two ways. Firstly, there needs to be adequate space on the server to store large amounts of audio material for three different courses. Secondly, the download time for large audio files, especially with a modem connection, can be so long that the system would not be used.

In the three courses for which this system was originally developed at the University, there are almost twenty hours of recorded material required by the instructors. These courses include a Sophomore-level introductory music literature course, and two semesters of Junior-level music history courses. There are also several music appreciation courses that would benefit from having Internet access to required listening assignments.

The potential audience of students had to be considered very carefully as the system was being developed. We needed to know from where the students would be accessing the site and what kind of computer equipment they would be using when accessing the site. Most important, we needed to know what kinds of connections the students were planning to use. Although the imminent availability of "broadband" internet access will change the approach to media delivery over the next several years, we wanted to know what we were dealing with at present.

The original motivation for this project actually came from a desire on the part of the music library to relieve some of the demands on its staff and equipment during those times of the semester when the listening lab tends to become overcrowded. The original idea was to make the recordings accessible from the Music Department’s computer lab. When this idea was explored further, the idea of allowing the students access from other places on campus, and eventually even off campus was considered.

Some students had no personal computer and would need to access the site from on-campus computer labs. Others had recent computers and direct network connections in their dorm rooms, while others had recent computers with modem connections from home. The design of the site had to accommodate as many of these potential users as possible, while still delivering a level of sound quality that would be acceptable to the students and the instructors.

Audio quality was the first issue to be dealt with when designing this system. Because the University had recently invested in a dedicated audio server equipped with RealAudio delivery capabilities, this was the first method explored. RealAudio allows the user to listen to audio as it is being delivered over the Internet. This method of "streaming" audio means that the user does not have to wait for a large audio file to download before listening. It also allows the audio files stored on the server to be compressed signficantly.

The twenty hours of material would require approximately 12.6 GB of storage space if the recordings were digitized at CD-quality (44.1 kHz, stereo). A one-minute excerpt requires approximately 10 MB when recorded to the CD-quality AIFF file format. When compressed and encoded for RealAudio with a target audience using a 28.8 modem connection, the total space required for all of the recordings would be only 146.5 MB. The compression ratio is approximately 1/86 between these two file formats.

The level of compression, and the resulting effect on sound quality, when using RealAudio is dependent upon the target hardware. If a user is accessing the RealAudio content through a 28.8 modem, the file size must be smaller than that of the same material if it is to be delivered over a direct network (T1) connection. After some experimentation, it was determined that the loss of sound quality necessary to deliver the audio over a 28.8 modem connection would be too high.

The next option to be explored was delivering the audio as .wav or .aiff files with as much compression as possible. We determined that the original stereo recordings could be compressed to mono, and the sampling rate could be cut in half, to 22.05kHz, without the quality suffering too much. These two compressions cut the original CD files down to 1/4 of their original size. We actually started the semester with this method in place. We encouraged the students to use the online access from campus computer labs, and not from home with a modem.

If a clip is five minutes long, it would be approximately 12 MB in size in this file format, and could take quite a long time to download with a modem connection. Although we warned the students about this problem, several were intent on listening at home. Several students tried listening from home once and never tried to access the recordings again.

Finally, the relatively new file format of MPEG-1, Layer 3 (or .mp3) was explored. When this project was first being developed, the mp3 file format required special software for playback. One of the top priorities in the design of the site was to make it as easy to use and as universal as possible. Due to the extreme popularity and rapid proliferation of mp3’s, they can now be played by many readily available Internet browser plugins, including Quicktime.

The mp3 file format uses a compression algorithm that saves a large amount of space, while retaining an incredible level of audio fidelity. The compression ratio between a CD-quality AIFF file and a mono mp3 file is approximately 1/20. This works out to approximately 2.5 MB for a five-minute clip. The entire twenty hours of material can now be stored using about 630 MB.

Another serious issue facing the developers of this system was the problem of digitizing copyrighted recorded material and making it available on the Internet. It is neither legally nor morally responsible to distribute copyrighted material freely to anyone with a computer and Internet connection. The legal issue continues to be somewhat unclear, and many of the sources consulted while the project was in development provided conflicting or ambiguous information about the legality of the project.

This issue was approached with the traditional view that allowing students access to library and/or instructor-owned recordings in the library listening room is legal under the "fair use" provision of the copyright law. This view is supported by the Music Library Association, whose online "A Guide to Copyright for Music Librarians"* is a very useful resource on this issue.

Section 110 of the U.S. copyright law expressly states that the performance or display of certain kinds of works in the classroom, including musical works, is not an infringement of copyright. Many consider the library listening room to be an extension of the classroom. The delivery of recorded material over the Internet, to campus computer labs, dorm rooms, or students’ homes, is another extension of the classroom.

The MLA’s "Statement on the Digital Transmission of Electronic Reserves"* outlines the conditions under which making copyrighted recorded material available over the Internet should be considered fair use. These conditions include granting access only to students enrolled at the institution, making digital copies only of works studied in the course, and removing access privileges after the course is completed. The copies must be "lawfully made", meaning that either the institution or the instructor must own the original recording from which the copy is made. The institution should also make a good faith effort to purchase a commercially available copy of anything provided by the instructor.

In order to achieve compliance with these fair use conditions for our project, a password-protection scheme was implemented which limits access to the audio files to currently enrolled students in each of the courses. The files for each course are stored in a separate directory on the audio server, and a user must enter a user ID and password to access the sound files located in that directory. The passwords are changed at the end of each semester to remove access privileges for former students.

One of the most important questions raised about this project is: Are students using it? At the end of the first semester during which the system was in place, a brief survey was conducted of the affected students. Because the system was new, the students still had the option of listening to tapes in the library listening lab.

The results of this survey were mixed. Some students were thrilled about being able to do their required listening at their own convenience. Some were excited about using new technology in the course of their studies. On the other hand, there were those students who were put off by the use of the computer. These students seemed to be more comfortable listening to tapes or CDs in the library.

When asked if they had regularly used the Internet version of the listening assignments, approximately two thirds responded that they had. Those who did not regularly use the new system were asked why, and most indicated a lack of equipment or interest. For those students with access to fast network connections and fast computers, the system worked very well and elicited very positive feedback.

One issue raised by students responding to the survey had not been considered by the project developers. Several students pointed out that it was much easier to access particular pieces and movements when they had direct control over the playback through the Quicktime plugin or a similar playback utility. When listening in the library, especially when many students are listening to the same compilation tape simultaneously, the student has no control over what is played when. On the computer, a student can stop, pause, or rewind and listen to the recording again.

Even after implementing the mp3 file format, many students complained about the large file sizes and the long download times from home. The currently available technologies discussed here continue to have some disadvantages, but this will surely improve over the next several years. Broadband internet connections and/or improved file compression algorithms will likely be developed in the near future, making the distribution of audio over the internet a more convenient alternative to the traditional methods of educating our students in music literature.

*http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/Copyright/copyhome.htm

*http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/Copyright/ereserves