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There's a treasure-trove of free music available on the Net. All you need is a reliable connection and time to kill. The My Music folder on my machine boasts a not insignificant collection of mp3s: from Phish's live rendition of Slave To The Traffic Light (an urban anthem, believe you me) to at least eight full-length Grateful Dead concerts, and from a rap version of Who Are You? with Pete Townshend playing the acoustic guitar to two new-age renditions of Behind Blue Eyes. I know what you're thinking: these are MP3 files. They can be played on a pc resident mp3 player like Media Jukebox or from a stand-alone MP3 player. Rio makes the best ones, although it is far easier to pick up an LG in India. Even the best stand-alone players, though, come with limited memory. My Rio (a year old) boasts a 64MB memory. That accommodates about 20 normal-sized tracks. The 1 hour 29 minute-1969-concert of the Dead that takes up 75MB of space, though, is out. There's a solution: burning your mp3s onto a CD and playing them on a Discman. Here's what you need to do that: a CD-R drive; a blank CD (worth nothing, but they still charge you a nominal amount for it); and some really cool software. The software is the critical ingredient. You can get a simple file-transfer software and copy all your mp3s onto a CD, but you won't be able to play that in a normal CD player. To do that you need a software like the CD Creator from Adaptec (www.adaptec.com) which can, among other things transform mp3 files into a format that an audio CD player can read. The result: CDs that can be played on anything from a Discman to a pc. And the software also helps you create your own CD labels. Adaptec boasts other software of interest to anyone with a CD-R drive. Like Sound-stream, which helps you rip songs from (normal) CDs and store them as wav files on your desktop. And if re-mixing is your thing, it even allows you add groovy sound effects. Last word: with a CD-R, some code from Adaptec, and a friendly peer-exchange like Napster, you could set up your own little music operation. -R. Sukumar RADIO
Eat this: 50 channels of pure CD-quality music, 24 hours a day at the flip of a button. It isn't am, not even fm. Say hello to digital radio. Worldspace India, a wholly - owned subsidiary of the Washington-based World Space Corporation-promoted by an Ethiopian-American, Noah Samara-is launching India's first digital audio service in the last week of September. To begin with, the service will be available in Bangalore. But over the next six months, it will cover all major cities. Says M.G. Chandrasekhar, 52, Country Manager, Worldspace India: ''The reception will be crystal clear.'' World Space has a footprint large enough to cover India and its neighbouring countries. It will have 50 channels (10 to begin with) with some branded ones like Rock Music, Jazz, and Western Classical. It will also carry five international, and five Indian language channels. This is how the technology works: from a studio, a radio station uplinks its programme to a satellite, which in turn beams its down to special radios that have satellite antennas. Worldspace has its own satellites. The first, Afristar, launched last year covers all of Africa; the second, Asiastar, launched early this year, covers Asia; and the third, Ameristar, will be put into orbit early next year and cover South America. While there's no doubt that Worldspace will offer superior quality music, there are doubts about whether it will click. The radios needed to tune into Worldspace cost between Rs 8,000 and Rs 16,000. Currently, only four companies-Hitachi, JVC, Panasonic and Sony-manufacture such radio sets. Chandrasekhar says that Worldspace is aware of the cost factor. Ergo, it is working on a technology that can be downloaded (or received) on any device-television, personal computers, palmtops and audio systems. ''Ultimately, audio, video, and data will converge into a single equipment and we will cover the audio part,'' says Chandrasekhar. Worldspace is betting $25 million on digital radio happening in India. But with 101 fm stations waiting to mushroom in 40 Indian cities, it may not get to play to a packed hall. -Dilip Maitra
SMALL
INDUSTRY Did you know that potato wafers and sticks taste best when the moisture content in potato is not more than 73 per cent? Or that the peroxide value of oil used for frying is as low as 1 per cent to prevent the namkeens from turning rancid? And that the syrup used to sweeten rasogollas actually has only 55 per cent sugar? You may not know all that, but the Delhi-based Bikanervala does. And it follows these stringent culinary rules to the T. Which is why it is the first manufacturer of its kind to get the ISO 9002 quality certification. Says Shyam Sunder Aggarwal, 48, Managing Director, Bikanervala Foods: ''The certification gives us a clear edge over our competitors.'' The certification, given by Underwriters Laboratories Inc., covers a host of Bikanerwala's processes, including procurement of raw-materials, housekeeping, manufacturing, and even marketing. In fact, its new Rs 10-crore plant has a testing lab, and uses automatic machines that obviate manual handling. Not all are impressed by the certification, though. Says the head of one of Delhi's leading bakery and namkeen company: ''ISO 9002 is good for the unorganised sector, since it adds to its credibility. Organised players with an established brand name can do without it.'' But Bikanervala is no push-over. Its Faridabad facility produces 250 tonnes of namkeens for Pepsi, which sells them under the Lehar brand. The Rs 20-crore company is also eyeing export markets in the US, Canada, and the Middle East. Aggarwal says that his company has received an offer from the Canadian government to set up an exclusive outlet in one of its bigger cities. Now, that's a cracker of a deal. -Jaya Basu
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