Music

How to split an MP3 into individual tracks for free

Dave Farquhar Music
How to split an MP3 into individual tracks for free

When you convert a cassette tape or vinyl record into MP3, you usually get one long file per side. That’s fine for singles, but what if you have albums? You’ll probably want to split the recording into individual tracks to get the full convenience of digitizing it. Here’s the method I use to convert a record or tape into individual MP3 tracks.

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When the RIAA sued a 12-year-old for MP3 piracy

Dave Farquhar Copyright, Music, Retro Computing
When the RIAA sued a 12-year-old for MP3 piracy

It was 22 years ago this week, on Semptember 8, 2003, that the Recording Industry Association of America started suing individuals for pirating MP3 files. One of the people caught up in a lawsuit was a 12-year-old honors student who lived in public housing.

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A&M Records sues Napster, December 6, 1999

Dave Farquhar Music
A&M Records sues Napster, December 6, 1999

On December 6, 1999, A&M Records sued Napster. Although the trial’s goal was to stop Napster, initially it had the opposite effect, with millions of users signing up for the service while the getting was still good. But given Napster’s business model, it was pretty clear what the effect of the lawsuit ultimately would be. This was the first major case to address the application of copyright laws to peer-to-peer file sharing.

A&M Records was the lead plantiff, along with 17 other record companies, all of which were members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

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Napster’s end of the road

Dave Farquhar Music
Napster’s end of the road

On September 24, 2001, Napster settled a lawsuit with the RIAA for $26 million. This effectively ended Napster as an MP3 file sharing service but other similar services soon appeared in its place. Attempts to turn itself into a subscription-based service failed and it liquidated less than a year later.

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What’s the Frequency, Kenneth remembered

Dave Farquhar Music
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth remembered

We’ll pause my regular content for a moment to take a look back at an old R.E.M. song, “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth,” that saw its release 30 years ago today. I still remember the first time I heard it. And the third or fourth. It was an event.

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CD won’t rip? Try a different drive.

Dave Farquhar Hardware, Music, War Stories , ,

A few weeks ago I uncovered a stash of CDs from my college and early bachelor days that, for one reason or another, I’d never ripped to MP3 format.

When I started ripping the discs, I got one clue as to why I never ripped some of them: Some of them made the DVD drive in my Dell laptop sound like a Commodore 1541. If you ever owned a Commodore, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t ever owned a Commodore, let’s just say my drive groaned in protest very loudly, and in exchange for putting up with the noise and insanely long rip times, I received a bunch of errors and a few MP3s that played really poorly.

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The downside of streaming music

Dave Farquhar Music, security

There’s a new rule when it comes to security and privacy: If a service is free, then you’re the product.

Actually, come to think about it, the rule isn’t so new. I’m the product when I listen to the radio. Radio stations exist to deliver a product–namely, an audience–to advertisers, and the audience is different when you’re talking top 40 versus urban contemporary versus country versus classic rock versus alternative versus adult contemporary.

But when it comes to streaming music, the game changes a bit.

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Enabling 320kbps bitrate MP3s in Windows Media Player in Windows 10

Dave Farquhar Music, Windows , , , ,
Enabling 320kbps bitrate MP3s in Windows Media Player in Windows 10

I had a maddening issue in Windows Media Player on my Windows 10 machine where I could only rip CDs at a maximum bit rate of 192 kbps. Since storage is so cheap anymore, I prefer to rip at 320 kbps. Here’s how to enable 320kbps bitrate MP3s in Windows Media Player in Windows 10. Read more

Nostalgia can make you younger

Dave Farquhar Health, Music, Retro Computing, security , , , , , ,

This month’s Social Engineer podcast featured psychology professor Dr. Ellen Langer, whose specialty is mindfulness. Dr. Langer brought up a lot of important things, including the idea of work-life integration rather than the more difficult work-life balance, but another thing she briefly touched on really resonated with me. She brought up a study, originally done in the late 1970s, where a group of 80-somethings were immersed in 1959 for a week. At the end of the week, they didn’t act like 80-somethings anymore. It seems nostalgia can make you younger.

That got me thinking about the power of nostalgia.

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Dave vs. Mmm-Bop

Dave Farquhar Music, Personal, St. Louis, War Stories , , , ,

NPR recently released its Songs of the Summer, which invokes memories of summers past by conjuring up (or dredging up, in some cases) songs you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing. Songs like “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley (2006), or “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira (also 2006). Or the bane of 1991, the unforgettable “Summertime” by the equally unforgettable DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.

In 1997, one of the songs of the summer was “MMMBop” by boy-band Hanson. And mercifully, I avoided hearing it. I remember the summer of 1997. While everyone else was listening to that, I was listening to aging bands like The Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen, and that habit saved me. I managed to make it until 2004 without hearing that boy-band staple. It’s an achievement I’m proud of. Read more