OGG files.

I am getting several mails concerning the OGG files.

If anyone has playback problems, check the Vorbis homepage for everything you need to get it running on all of your systems (Mac OSx, Linux, Windoof or even IBM OS/2 (those were the best of times!)).

Vorbis.com

Even iTunes is running them afterwards, so you can synchronize your iPod, Sansa or Hongkong copy with it. A powerful and nice alternative to all the common media players is MediaMonkey by the way. It combines everything you need (ripping, tagging, converting, organizing, playing nearly all files etc.) in one easy program. It has a nice Amazon based tagging option for adding the album cover art and additional informations:

MediaMonkey

I tried several players over all the years combining them with additional tools (ExactAudioCopy, Foobar2000 etc.) and I think this is the best I had until now. If you have portable MP3 players: MediaMonkey will convert every playable file on fly while sychronizing with your player.


Why OGG files?

I do not have an own server or web space and I want to keep it this way (due to the costs), but until now all free file host services still offer not enough space for one file being lossless. It would be fine with me if I could offer all the stuff in lossless files like APE or FLAC although it's sad that still only a few nerdarios care about this issue.
OGG files offer the better sound than MP3s while having the same file size (or even a bit less). One may argue that it makes no sense for Assück or Indian Summer if they are offered as MP3 or OGG files, but that's not the point here.
And: OGG is open source - license- and patent-free (MP3 isn't!).

Why are the OGG files not tagged?

I am a lazy bastard. Do it on your own (Foobar2000, MediaMonkey etc.).