You can also err on the side of being too parsimonious with file size. If you dip below the magic mark of 128 Kbps, sound quality suffers greatly. In these situations, use QuickTime Pro with the QDesign Codec. This encoder is specifically designed to produce extremely compact audio files for delivery over the Net. All this said, MP3s aren't the only game in town.
Online audio is a booming business, and other encoding options are starting to crop up.
In addition, those in the music business often create files you can't save to a hard disk, and the quality of many Real Audio files is so wretched that few people are interested in saving them anyway. Liquid Audio may sound draconian to users accustomed to the laissez-faire spirit of MP3, but the fact remains that the music industry won't allow online distribution of commercial recordings unless those recordings are copy protected in some fashion. Although record companies are searching for a secure means of selling music online, Liquid Audio and similar schemes hardly spell the end for MP3. The genie is out of the bottle, and the efforts of all the massed legal departments of the record companies can't put it back. Thanks to MP3's quality and ability to make small files, available encoders and software players, the new portable hardware players, and the desire of musicians and listeners everywhere to make music accessible to all who care to hear it, MP3 is here to stay.