What is an MP3?
MP3 is a digital music format for creating high-quality sound files and it has transformed the way people buy and listen to music. The great attraction is its ability to compress files – making it convenient, versatile and very popular. Plus, the sound quality is very similar to older formats, but there are no moving parts - so no danger of skipping, as with a CD player.
The internet has clearly made near-instantaneous communication a very easy thing to achieve. Voice and video communication is relatively simple and people no longer ask whether you have an email address, they assume you have one and ask what it is.
How it works
MP3 achieves its powerful compression by stripping out a lot of the sounds in a song which our ears cannot hear, and using complex maths to reduce file sizes further.
The result is that MP3 tracks are around 11 times smaller than their predecessors.
What are the benefits?
Thanks to MP3, a typical music track is reduced from about 50MB (megabytes) to around 4MB. You can fit more than 100 MP3 tracks on a typical audio CD instead of around 16 tracks in the old format (called .WAV) still used on commercial music CDs.
As a result, you can easily download - and email - MP3s. Numerous programs for playing MP3s are available, such as Windows’ Media Player, Real Player, iTunes or WinAmp.
However, although all of these programs will play your MP3 tracks, if you buy music through them they will download tracks in another format. It is possible to buy special software to convert to and from MP3. But to save yourself the hassle, it is worth thinking about what you will use to play the music before you download it.
Numerous websites, meanwhile, offer MP3 downloads for a small fee, typically less than £1 per track.
Many people upload (‘rip’) their CD collection to their computer. Once stored on your hard drive, you can play your music through the speakers on your computer or through headphones. And, if you wish, you can create your own compilation albums and playlists.
You can copy MP3 files onto a portable MP3 player - or in the case of iTunes, an iPod. Portable radio/CD players now have the capability to play MP3s too. Another option is copying (‘burning’) music downloads from your computer to a blank CD.
Possible misuse
The sheer success of MP3s makes them prone to misuse.
Piracy – the illegal downloading and sharing of music - has become a big problem for the music industry, and the subject of high-profile legal actions. People sometimes swap music online, perhaps not realising that they are breaching copyright laws.
Andrew Stucken
Andrew cut his journalistic teeth with the local press, and has since moved on to writing for major national websites specialising in technology and money-saving. He has also written for The Times and other national newspapers.
