All About MP3

All about MP3

By Dave Donovan

Audio technology sure has come a long way. Remember those huge round discs made from vinyl? If you are 18 years or younger, you probably don’t. And 15 years from now, people probably won’t remember what those little silver discs were either.

That’s how fast technology has changed the landscape of our listening pleasure. If you walk into most homes today, you won’t see an entire wall in the living room taken up by records or CDs. Instead, you’ll see a small MP3 player holding all of their favorite songs in one tiny electronic device.

MP3 players not only hold all of your music, but most of them can play the songs back in a random fashion, so in essence you have your own personal, portable jukebox. But what exactly is an MP3? How are they made? Read on to learn all about MP3s.

MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3

MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 is the less-sexy name for MP3s. It’s an audio encoding format which has been around for over 15 years. MP3 encoding technology was invented by a team of European researchers at CCETT, Philips, IRT and the Fraunhofer Society. In 1991, the format became the ISO/IEC standard.

MP3 encoding technology features a compression algorithm which is designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required for the recording, yet allow the quality of the recording to remain faithful to the original sound. This is why a 25MB wav file can be converted into a 2.5MB MP3 file and sound virtually identical.

From Winamp to iTunes – An MP3 Story

The technology was appreciated for a number of years by audiophiles, but it wasn’t until the program Winamp was released in 1997 that its popularity really began to take off. Winamp allowed users to make MP3 copies of their CD collection and store them on their computer’s hard drive. It also allowed users to listen to their music in whatever fashion they wished.

In 1999, the popularity of the format surged with the introduction of Napster. Napster gave members the ability to download MP3 files from other members for free in what was called peer-to-peer file sharing. This was revolutionary at the time but Napster soon found itself in the throes of a legal battle with some of music’s biggest stars over copyright infringement.

Eventually, Napster was forced to rework their file sharing system into a paid service so musical acts could rightfully receive royalties for their downloaded songs. In 2001, Apple launched their hugely successful iPod MP3 player, but it wasn’t until two years later that the company would become the undisputed leader in the MP3 industry with its software and music purchasing program, iTunes.

Today MP3s are still all the rage, with each new Apple iPod release breaking sales records. Other companies have also built their legacy on their MP3 players. Companies like Creative, Insignia, SanDisk, Archos and even Apple’s biggest competitor Microsoft has thrown their hat into the ring with their MP3 player, the Zune.

MP3 Terminology

Ripping – When a CD is converted from its original wav files into MP3 files, it is called “ripping” the CD or song. Ripping is the slang for the compression of the audio file.

ID3 – ID3 is a “tag” on the MP3 file which stores such information as the artist name, song name and album name so players can detail what’s being played in their display window.

Bit rate – Bit rates are the sampling frequencies at which the music is ripped. The higher the bit rate, the better quality audio, but it’s also a larger file. Most users are happy with 128 kbit/s, but more people are leaning toward 192 kbit/s as the standard. The lowest bit rate for MP3 encoding is 32 kbit/s while the highest is currently 320 kbit/s.

Digital Rights Management – This encryption technology was initiated by online music retailers to prevent the unauthorized use of an MP3. It places a limit on which devices a file can be played in an effort to prevent peer-to-peer file sharing.

Lossless – Many times when downloading MP3s, you may see a file which says it is “lossless.” This means that the file was compressed using a technology that when the file is decompressed results in a file identical to the original. These files are usually much larger than a regular MP3.

Making Your Own MP3s

The Internet is filled with free software for making your own MP3s. Whether you want to reduce your CD collection to the palm of your hand, or back them up on an external hard drive, these programs can help you do it.

All you need to do is download the software and install it. Apple’s iTunes is downloadable even if you don’t have an iPod, or try another ripper like Audiograbber.

Just insert your audio CD and the software will usually check it against an online database and then automatically fill in the album’s information. If it is an obscure CD, you may have to type in the data yourself. Next, go through the program’s “preferences” and configure everything from bit rate to the folder you wish to save the file in. Then click on “Rip CD” or “Import CD” or whatever button the program uses to rip. The CD will be ripped in about a minute or two and then you can simply move on to the next one!