MP3 Is a technological development set, some say, to revolutionise the music industry. Essentially it is an audio-compression format which allows audio files to be compressed to less than 10 per cent of their original size.

This in turn allows for quick computer downloads, while preserving sound quality. You can take a song from a CD and turn it into a file, send the file via e-mail or post it on a website.

Some US college students - with fast and easy Internet access - claim never to buy CDs anymore; they download all the music they want for free. But record companies are trying to create piracy-proof ways to let consumers download releases off the Internet. Meanwhile, musicians such as Chuck D of Public Enemy are taking music straight to the fans. Chuck D sees MP3 as a tool to empower musicians, cutting out the company and ensuring musicians see more profit for their work.

Earlier this year, Public Enemy sold 10,000 copies of their new album online, through an Internet record label and website, Atomic Pop. But the big record companies are getting online-friendly. Virgin released David Bowie's Hours for commercial download last September, two weeks before it was for sale in record shops, while Atlantic Records have made a Tori Amos download available through the Internet and EMI has a stake in musicmaker.com (see story above). IBM is working with five major record companies on a system that will allow people to download CDs from a virtual shop on the Internet.

MP3 is changing things, but it's not all perfect yet. Story upon story of various complications are putting people off. You need the right technical equipment to start with (something faster than an ordinary phone line would help) and - for commercial releases - you need a credit card.

That's fine in the US, maybe, but in Ireland not a lot of teenagers have them or have access to them. Still, piracy seems, so far, to be a fairly safe bet.

Meanwhile, one journalist who tried to download Hours learned a tough lesson about doing business online - it can take a while. It took him 20 minutes to download the "Liquid Audio Player", complications ensued, and another 75 minutes later, the Bowie download began. It looked set to take 10 hours - only the Internet connection broke.