Like you might get hurt if you get sucked in by today's slam-dancing audio vendors. Streaming , made famous by RealNetworks, connects you to a server and plays music as it momentarily travels across the Internet. Sound quality is fair. Downloading , made famous by MP3, delivers music from elsewhere and stores it on your computer. Because the audio is saved on your PC, you can play it again and again.
Sound quality is almost as good as CDs.
This column's about downloading. We'll just download and store music onto various devices. Greedy and venal, vendors want to upend MP3 and substitute a standard of their own. So they can charge a fee to record companies. Microsoft launches an MP3 alternative called MS Audio 4.0.