What Is MP3
What Is MP3
MP3 stands for (MPEG Audio Layer 3). An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 specifications. Developed in Germany in 1991 by the Fraunhofer Institute, MP3 uses perceptual audio coding to compress CD-quality sound by a factor of 12, while providing almost the same fidelity. MP3 music files are played via software or a physical player that cables to the PC for transfer.
MP3 has made it feasible to download quality audio from the Web very quickly, causing it to become a worldwide auditioning system for new musicians and labels. Established bands post sample tracks from new albums to encourage CD sales, and new bands post their music on MP3 sites in order to develop an audience.
Copyrighted music is also offered for a fee, or sometimes for free, creating a major legal issue. MP3 has revolutionized music distribution, since an hour of near CD-quality audio can be downloaded in five minutes.
Major publishers are trying to cope with this phenomenon by introducing copyright protection.
There are numerous MP3 "rippers" and encoders on the market that pull out raw audio data from a music CD and encode it into the MP3 format. MP3 gave rise to a variety of handheld players that download the music from a PC and store it in a flash memory chip or hard disk, and MP3 playback has been added to both portable and desktop CD players. CDs are also available in MP3 format with more than 100 song titles, compared to the dozen or so on a standard digital audio CD.
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