Not too long ago listening to CDs was the most popular method of enjoying music on the go. At some point, the CD with its particularly inherent challenges such as skipping, scratching, breaking, etc. was considered something of a headache. Technologists went to work on creating a media that could be listened to without the use of a CD. It was radical thinking but today we have the result of those radicals, which is the MP3.
What is an MP3? MP3 stands for MPEG Audio Layer 3, which is a file’s compressed form for the Internet. MPEG Audio what? Let’s take a closer look at the sometimes mysterious MP3 and discover what it actually entails.
We’ve already defined what the wording MP3 stands for but that says very little about what an MP3 actually is. In its simplest terms, an MP3 is the software compression format that allows music files to be compressed for various uses on the Internet. In other words, an average music file on a CD, meaning one song, can be any number of megabytes (MB) in size. A song that is 3 to 4 minutes long may very well be 50 MB. This is huge compared to MP3 files which are a fraction of the size. Getting the picture now? In the past, carrying your CD around in its player entitled you to only the songs included on the CD, which could be anywhere from 10 to 18 songs. It was great back in the day. But today, you can fashion your MP3 player or personal media player with hundreds or even thousands of songs!
The technology behind the MP3 player is that the layer format utilizes digital technology that creates a compressed signature of a file into a format that can easily be uploaded, download, synchronized, ripped, burned or even hacked from a variety of sources to a variety of devices.
One of the most popular sources for buying MP3s is through an online music store such as iTunes. Other competitive sources, however, which are questionable in terms of legal rights, are Internet sites such as Limewire and SpiralFrog which are shareware sites that you can upload and download various media files from.
If you are acquiring MP3s through a media device such as an iPod, you will also have the territorial iTunes software that allows you to manage your files into playlists via your computer. If you are using an MP3 player or other personal media player, you will still have to maintain your songs through your computer and a media player program that most computers come installed with.
As with any other file downloaded from the Internet, there is the risk of contracting a virus when downloading MP3s from online. Be sure that you have a fully functional ant-virus program running on your computer when you are downloading. Also make sure that you update your anti-virus program regularly to stay up to date on new viruses that could harm your computer and/or player.
Comments
Comments are closed for this post.