ORIGINAL: GypsyJazz

ORIGINAL: Clik
The shock to me was to find out that artists are supposed to pay for the "privilege" of distributing their songs in MP3 format... wow! My band has never made an MP3, and we don't have a web page, but you can bet, if we ever do...

It's not exactly like that.

If you encode your MP3s with a program whose developer
has paid the license fee then you are totally legal.

They haven't (yet) gone after the artists for the royalties.
They targeted the developers instead.

The royaltiy is charged for each copy sold of any
software that uses the Fraunhoffer codec.

Actually there are royalties that apply to commercial (for profit) electronic distribution methods that use patented MP3 technology. This includes commercial distribution of MP3 files, streaming of MP3 compressed audio data (such as over the Internet), broadcasting (such as Terestrial, Satellite, or Cable).

See the official rate schedules for these on the "Music Services" tab of the official MP3 Licensing Website ( http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/ ).

And as you correctly sited, there are also royalties for software that encodes and decodes MP3 compressed data. See the official rate schedules for such software royalties on the "PC Software Apps" tab of the official MP3 Licensing Website ( http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/ ).

Additionally, the MP3 Licensing scheme requires royalties from games, hardware appliances, and integrated circuit chips and digital processing chips--also noted on the same website.

If you use MP3 commercially you are required to pay something. Doesn't matter if you're a hardware manufacturer, a software developer, a broadcaster, or a producer who chooses to sell his music in MP3 format.

ORIGINAL: Angler

The royaltiy is charged for each copy sold of any
software that uses the Fraunhoffer codec.

Just to be totally and utterly clear on this.

If someone uses wavlab with the Franhofer encoder to create mp3's
for commercial distribution, that someone is safe because wavlab has
taken care of the licensing fees?

WaveLab is paying royalties for their own distribution of patented Franhofer-based software programming. In other words, they are creating an MP3-enabled tool for which they are required to pay a royalty for the distribution of that tool because they sell the tool commercially.

However, anyone who uses the WaveLab tool to create MP3 files which will be distributed commercially, to create MP3 streams to send over the Internet, or MP3 encoded broadcast transmissions is responsible for his/her own royalties for distribution of the audio material in the MP3 format. WaveLab, Cakewalk, Sony--none of these companies are going to pay for the end-users commercial use of MP3 technology. They only pay for their own right to include the technology in their software products.

Razor Lame is a graphical front-end to the LAME

Thanks for the clarification, David. I appreciate it.

I'd found the information in the Help for hooking up the encoder and using the reg files on the DVD but did not understand why I couldn't use the Razor Lame or WinLame EXE's.

Now I just need to find the command line encoder...

Steven

dcastle
http://lame.sourceforge.net/

Excellent!

Thanks again,

Steven

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

How do I download and install the LAME MP3 encoder?

Because of software patents, we cannot distribute MP3 encoding software ourselves. Follow these instructions to use the free LAME encoder to export MP3 files with Audacity.

1. Go to the LAME download page.
2. Click on any link from the list of identical "lame-3.96.1" links.
3. When you have finished downloading LAME, unzip it and save the file lame_enc.dll anywhere on your computer.
4. The first time you use the "Export as MP3" command, Audacity will ask you where lame_enc.dll is saved.

Oops! I'm getting nervous about this --- I try to be careful about obeying laws because I answer to a higher authority --- so I'm going to pay the $29 to activate the SONAR MP3 encoder so that I know I am staying legit.

Regards,
David

You pay $299 and you get all kinds of encoders, you pay $699 and you don't. That's a better value? I think the original point of this thread is that an expensive high end audio program like Sonar should have the encoder as part of the $699 price. Fortunately for me I got it with Pro Audio 9 and am able to upgrade it with each new version of Sonar.

These posts (from the same thread) provide step by step procedures for setting this up:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.asp?m=303681
http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.asp?m=303896

What really erks me is that I have purchased the right to use mp3 at least half a dozen times. Consequently now I use external lame most of the time.

In addition to having it Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 which keeps me going in Sonar. I bought it as an add on to various programs (such as Magix Audio Cleaner) which were activated on line when purchased. When a day came that I had to reformat my system drive I found out I had to repurchase the authorization for each and every program I had.

I revolted to the scam. Today I limit my audio editing to Vegas Video and Sonar and take care of most of my mp3 creation using Exact Audio Copy.

I have two major dislikes of the Cakewalk routine. One, it does not create proper feilds in the mp3 file. I always have to use the mp3 advanced properties context menu in Windows Explorer to correctly enter the mp3 fields. Two, some of the settings of the last conversion are auto entered into the Cakewalk interface based on the FIRST conversion during the current session instead of based on the current file of the current session. In other words, If I open up Sonar to create an mp3 from a project, some of the information is auto transferred, but when I close that project and then open up another project to output that to mp3, the feilds are auto entered with info from the FIRST project not the CURRENT one. This can cause an indavertant overwright or false duplication if you are not careful.