Radio music ripping

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The term ripping (slang term for digital audio extraction) can also apply to radio. New software and techniques now makes it possible to extract the songs played on the radio and digitally save them on separate audio tracks. Available techniques make it possible to rip the music from Internet radio broadcasts, satellite radio broadcasts and FM radio broadcasts.

Ripping is more than simply recording the audio. The key aspect of ripping is disambiguation. When ripping songs from any source, the songs should be split into separate tracks or files, and the songs should be tagged. Otherwise, you are simply recording or dubbing the audio.

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[edit] Internet Radio

Some software can record songs played over an Internet radio station. Such software checks the radio station’s website to see which songs are being broadcasted at a given time and saves them as files under the song’s name. The quality of the recorded song however depends from the Internet streaming and it is common to have some DJ voices and commercials included in the mp3 file.

[edit] Satellite Radio

TimeTrax has developed software that can record the audio broadcast on XM satellite radio. It saves songs as individual MP3 files after identifying the name and the artist. TimeTrax is both a software and hardware solution: the TimeTrax software can interface with any PC-compatible satellite receiver, and the adapter box is necessary to allow certain receivers to interface with a PC.

The XM PCR was the first device to allow audio stream ripping from XM radio. The device itself is simple enough: an XM "can" (the actual receiver and decoding hardware) is enclosed in a box with a USB interface chip and audio connector. The PCR plugs into a PC USB port and line-in jack. TimeTrax, or some other similar software, then controls the radio and records the incoming audio. After a legal battle, the TimeTrax software is no longer being sold.

To end the problem for good, XM discontinued the XM PCR receiver.

[edit] FM Radio

There are three ways of ripping songs from an FM broadcast.

[edit] Radio Data System

Some FM receivers are capable of receiving a data stream known as Radio Data System or RDS. This provides artist and title information that can be shown on the display of a compatible FM receiver. A compatible receiver, connected to the computer, can tag saved audio streams with this data. The disadvantage of RDS is that the title may change before or after the song itself changes, causing the recording process to miss part of the beginning or end of the song.

In the near future RDS will include a new feature called RT+ or Radio Text Plus. As well as providing discrete text fields for Artist, Album & Track Title, RT+ includes 'item running' and 'item toggle' bits which can be used to accurately mark the track transitions and DJ/commercial interruptions, aiding the process of recording, filenaming and ID3 tagging.

[edit] Separating music from non-music

Swedish company PopCatcher has patented a technology that enables to distinguish between music and chatter and commercials. It is a self-learning process that first identifies the broadcasting habits of a given radio station. PopCatcher is designed to automatically exclude commercials and DJ patter from the recording, which results in “cleaner” audio files. The process is fully independent from the Internet, however it does not recognize the names and the artists of the recorded songs.

[edit] Manual Tagging

Certain recording packages allow you to set markers in the file, which you can use later to split the file into separate tracks. This process can be tedious and time consuming, but has the advantage of being the only truly reliable way to ensure that the song is captured as accurately as possible without cutting off the beginning or end of a track.

[edit] Legal issues

This expanding way of ripping music may lead to ‘strong legal debates’ in a near future, even if it is permitted to record music from the radio for private use in most countries.

[edit] European Context

The EU passed in May 2001 the Information Society Directive which has since then been transposed into the national laws of most of the Member States. Article 5 – 2/b of the directive states that “[Member States may provide for exceptions or limitations to the reproduction right provided for] in respect of reproductions on any medium made by a natural person for private use and for ends that are neither directly nor indirectly commercial, on condition that the rightholders receive fair compensation which takes account of the application or non-application of technological measures referred to in Article 6 [ie. Digital Rights Management ] to the work or subject-matter concerned”.

In short, copying music from the radio for private use is permissible if the artists receive a “fair compensation”. In case of a lawsuit against radio music ripping technologies, the whole debate will be about the meaning of the term “fair compensation”. It can be argued that Radio stations are already paying a “fair compensation” to artists as they know their songs might be copied. Moreover, in an increasing number of EU member states, importers are charged a private copying levy on the purchase of recordable media (mp3 players, writable CDs or DVDs). The tax or levy is usually administrated by copyright collectives. However, at the time of digital copies, the outcome of such a lawsuit is far from being certain if it should occur.

[edit] American Context

The doctrine of fair use should make it legal to record songs from the radio for private use. Recording music from the radio on an old cassette recorder device used to not to be a problem for the Recording industry. However, the digital format in this case changes the whole issue since it does not degrade over time and can be easily copied.

That PopCatcher has developed a technology that automatically removes commercials may lead to a legal case similar to ReplayTV’s and SonicBlue’s. In 2001 these DVR manufacturers had issued a Digital Video Recorder equipped with a Commercial Advance feature enabling the automatic removing of commercials from recorded programming. They were sued by 28 companies of the Entertainment Industry in the USA until they ran out of money to pay the expensive litigation. In 2003, they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The case itself has never been judged.[citation needed]

The Audio Home Recording Act also lays out certain legal rights on the part of consumers.

[edit] External links