MP3 Players: How It All Began

You have probably seen some old movies where some unruly teenager carried on his shoulders one the first "portable" audio playersa blaring cassette-tape-playing two-speaker monster (if you're old enough, you may even have done this yourself). What can the desire of people to take their music with them do!

But the first truly portable audio player was the cassette-tape based Sony Walkman. That was extremely revolutionary in its time. This small plastic box (well, today it doesnt seem to be very small any longer) with earphones brought on the dawn of the portable audio player and sparked a legion of imitators. The subsequent introduction of audio CDs and CD-based walkmans marked the start of the digital music age.

A relatively recent revolution in this area was the introduction of Apples portable music player, the iPod. Although portable mp3 players existed before it (the first mass market mp3 player, the Rio PMP300, was introduced in 1998), the iPods unique design, its user-friendliness, and Apples very good reputation for its sense of aesthetics created immense interest in the product. Soon iPod was catapulted to its current ubiquity. More than 7 out of 10 mp3 player owners today have an iPod.

Portable mp3 players today are a must-have in the everyone-else-has-them-so-I-should-have-one-too sense. Although they are indeed undoubtedly very handy. Especially among the younger half of the population, jumping aboard the portable music bandwagon is a way of staying cool and keeping up with the times.

MP3 format has been chosen as the most widespread. Songs of that format can be supported not only by iPods but by the majority of devices. You can enjoy MP3 music while walking, driving, cooking, or listening to your dull lectures.

The primary source of music in mp3 players today is still audio CDs, as it is now very easy to create mp3s from them (using Total Audio Converters rip CD option). The widespread availability of internet access, with the ability to download plenty of music (legally and illegally) is also a crucial factor in the spread of portable music players. Though there is the reverse of the medal. The songs in the web are of dozens different audio formats. What to do with some FLAC or APE song?

The solution is quite simple. Get some audio encoding/decoding tool to convert your songs to your favorite mp3. For example, Total Audio Converter (http://www.CoolUtils.com) is a brainlessly simple tool that supports almost all audio formats. No matter what source format your track is, Total Audio Converter will easily convert it to the format you need. What is important TAC was developed to be handy and suites any digital music newbie.

Today, 1 in 5 Americans, and about 11 out of 20 American teenagers, own at least one portable audio. More than 1 out of 10 older adults (aged 35-54) own an mp3 player as well. (Interestingly, two-thirds of mp3 player owners are male girls, where are you?) From these stats alone, its easy to see that portable music players are definitely here to stay. And that is GREAT

Alexander Johannes is a professional writer that loves music and eveything connected to that area.

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How Online Article Marketing is Significantly Increasing My Income (Part 4 of 5)

Following is Part 4 of my case study on article marketing. Specifically, Im studying the following topic in detail: Article Marketing Does It Work, Or Not?

My desire is to create more passive income. An overworked freelancer, I decided to give article marketing a REAL try, as Id read so much about it. Following are more of the sites Im consistently submitting articles to. I chose them because they had good PR and Alexa rankings.

For explanations of these, as well as details on the beginning of the experiment, see the 10/26/06 post on InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com.

16. ContentTycoon.com: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 201,965.

You must create an author account to submit. According to the announcement on their site, they recently underwent an overhaul and the wait time to approve an article is less than 24 hours.

This is not the case with my articles. To date, theyve approved 2 of the 8 Ive submitted. Considering that some sites can take up to 4 weeks to approve an article though Im not complaining.

No article stats are provided here. So again, get out your article tracking log sheet.*

17. AfroArticles.com: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 38,666.

This site has extensive category listings.

I had to smile when I read their submission guidelines because I wrote a couple of articles explaining why I believe that longer articles sell better. On article length, they state: An article length between 700 to 2500 words is desirable. Finally, somebody gets it!

This site is easy to navigate and once you create an author account, you can start submitting multiple articles immediately. Article stats and a tracking feature are also provided.

As an aside, being African American, I like that they have categories which focus on "Afro Issues" among the other categories you'd find at any article submission site. When I ran my ethnic online crafts business, I had a hard time finding enough outlets to submit articles to, so it's nice to see someone has recognized this void.

18. ImpactArticles: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 189,006.

You dont need to create an author account to submit here. I tried to use their form to submit, but it didnt work. So, I sent them the article via email, as advised on their site (eg, when the form doesnt work).

This is a no-frills site (no tracking features, feeds or article stats provided). The only reason I chose this site is that it is updated daily and I recognized a couple of names of authors who have done well in Internet marketing (ie, Charlie Cook and Willie Crawford).

Google either of these names and youll see what I mean. I figured if their articles are there, then its a good place for mine to be.

19. Free-Articles-Zone.com: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 56,670.

You need to create an author account to submit. Im a bit perplexed at this directory because Ive submitted 8 articles here and according to my account, only one is showing up.

The others seem to have disappeared. Usually a site will tell you if an article is pending, or if there are problems that need to be addressed before it is published nothing here. Just one article that was published on 10/19, which means its probably the first one I submitted.

HTML Note: This site uses what I call "alternative code" for common elements (bold, ital, underline, etc.). Eg, instead of *b*BOLD*/b* for bold, it uses *strong*BOLD*/strong*. This is the only site I encountered to use this type of coding.

Im bummed that Im going to have to go back and submit to this site. I really like their setup and the overall feel of the site not to mention their very good rankings.

20. MainStreetMom.com: This directory has a PR rank of 5 and an Alexa rank of 200,721.

This is not a directory site. It describes itself as The online magazine for modern mothers with traditional values.... See explanation below as to why I submitted articles here.

By the way, no need to create an account to submit here they have an article submission form that you use.

When Its a Good Idea to Use Lower-Rated Directories and Websites

Targeted Marketing: As I explained at the beginning of this experiment, I chose directories/sites based on their PR and Alexa rankings.

But, as you may have noticed, some of these sites are not exactly top-rated. So, why did I submit to them? Because they spoke directly to the audience Im trying to reach.

This may sound a little elementary, but in the interest of educating, it is always more important to reach 100 people who fit your target market than 1,000 who do not.

Eg, MainStreetMom.com. While its Alexa ranking is below the much desired 100,000 or lower range, it speaks directly to an audience who show a great interest in my product (e-books on freelance writing again, if I can ever find time to get them on Clickbank!).

So, as you prepare to market, write down the who, what, where, when and why as it pertains to your target market. Eg, who and/or what are they, where are they, when are they there and why are they there?

Answers to these questions will give you a pretty clear picture of where and how to market your product/service.

Article Marketing Tips Learned from This On-Going Case Study

a. Submit to the head of the directory: What do I mean by this? Many directories have sub-categories. Eg, a main heading might be Writing & Speaking. Under this you may find article marketing, e-book publishing, copywriting, etc.

From my article stats (where provided), Ive noticed that the articles submitted under the main heading (eg, Writing & Speaking) get read more than those under the sub-headings.

I can only guess that many people dont know exactly what theyre looking for, so will search under a main category heading first. As most surfers flit from article to article, they may never get around to clicking through to sub-categories.

Article directory owners may disagree with this, or move your article to a sub-category, but unless/until they say otherwise, I would submit under main category headings first.

b. Submit a series of articles: Over the last month and a half, including this series on article marketing, Ive written two more series (eg, Part 1 of 2).

I dont know if it was the topic or not (my topics focused on ways for freelancers to make more money), but articles as part of a series are getting more reads in a shorter period of time than single articles. They are also picked up by more e-zine publishers.

Mind you, this is a very limited study and a very narrow topic. Much more analysis over a longer period of time would need to be done to make definitive conclusions.

Im just tossing out info as I notice it. If you can lend any insight into any of these observations, please do so. Im as anxious to know as anyone.

c. Go minute! What do I mean? Give as much detail as possible. With online marketing being so competitive, implementing even the smallest change can mean a big return.

Readers pick up on and dissect the smallest details. In my opinion, this is extremely helpful because something that you might not think of as important could be the clue that breaks the case wide open.

Shake, Shake, Shake My Moneymaker!

My earnings are up a bit to almost 3 times overall what I was making (per day) before I started this experiment.

*Article Tracking Log Sheet: After this experiment ends, I will be doing a final, in-depth case study analysis. Along with this, I will provide an article tracking log sheet I fashioned to keep track of where I submitted articles.

Stay tuned for Part V.

May be reprinted with the following, in full:

Yuwanda Black is the publisher of http://InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less -- Guaranteed! Log on to http://InkwellEditorial.com to learn how.

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Whats the Way You MP3?

As varied as the tastes and preferences of the people, is the variety of MP3 players available in the market. Which one you choose depends on a number of factors, such as how you plan to make use of the device, the number of songs you would like to carry in the instrument and of course if the price of the instrument suits you or not. MP3 players are generally based on their memory type. In a Flash Memory MP3 player, which is also the smallest and lightest of the three types of players available, only few songs are stored and since it does not have any moving parts, the flash player is ideal for a patron who is not so particular about the kind of music one hears. It is ideally suited for those who want music as just an accompaniment to their morning jog or golf game. Because the flash memory player is smallest, it offers the advantage of the batteries lasting longer.

In Hard Drive MP3 players there is a considerably larger storage capacity since they are bigger and heavier. Those looking for a player that can store their entire music collection would find the hard drive ideally suited for the purpose. But since the hard drive includes some moving parts, sometimes the music skips a beat or two when the player is being moved around. On the flip side, because of the sheer size of hard drive players, they include more in-built features, though consumes more battery. A charged battery could last for about 8-20 hours.

Although cheaper than flash memory and hard drive memory players, MP3 CD players give users a reason to complaint when music skips due to jostling of CDs. Also, such music players are much larger in size than their digital counterparts. Music patrons who still long for old-fashioned CD players could go for a new breed of CD players which are capable of playing MP3 and other digital files. MP3 CD players are capable of playing MP3 files that have been burned to CD-R/RW discs and even albums from your old collection of CDs. Each CD could hold about 10 hours of music. A CD burner becomes necessary for buyers of an MP3 CD player.

Copyrights protected article written by Andrew Stratton for http://www.surveillancetechnology.com. More articles and information about the spy camera products can be viewed easily altogether at this location http://www.surveillancetechnology.com/entertainment-system.htm. Please be free to explore the website for more information on every surveillance products and their features.

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