MP3 @ answers . com
1. An MPEG standard used especially for digitally transmitting music over the Internet.
2. A file containing a song or other audio data that is encoded using this standard: The band released its latest single as an MP3 on the Internet.
Edit :
MP3 stands for
MPEG-1 Layer III Audio Stream Sound file
(MPEG Audio Layer 3) An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 specifications. MP3 compresses CD-quality sound by a factor of roughly 10, while retaining most of the original fidelity; for example, a 40MB CD track is turned into a 4MB MP3 file.
MP3 files are played via media player software in the computer or in countless handheld players that use flash memory or hard disks for storage
Ripping
Converting a digital audio track from a music CD to the MP3 format is called "ripping," and ripping software is available as a stand-alone program or a function in a software-based media player such as Windows Media Player 10.
Bit Rates
While 128 Kbps (kilobits per second) is considered the norm for good quality MP3 files, MP3s can be ripped to bit rates from 8Kbps to 320 Kbps. The higher the bit rate, the better the sound and the larger the file. The sliding lever in the following dialog box, taken from Windows Media Player 10, is used to select four bit rates for encoding MP3s: 128, 192, 256 and 320 Kbps.
MP3 Revolutionized the Industry
In the late 1990s, MP3 made it feasible to transfer quality audio via the Web in a reasonable amount of time over an analog modem. An average MP3 file (4MB) took less than 15 minutes to download, and if a broadband connection was available, for example, on a college campus, it took seconds.
MP3 created a worldwide auditioning system for new musicians who could freely distribute their music in order to develop an audience. It also enabled music lovers to swap copyrighted titles with impunity. File sharing services such as the original Napster and KaZaA made it a global phenomenon, and the record industry went into a frenzy over violations of its copyrights (see Napster). Today, copyrighted MP3 files are still shared over the Internet. However, online music stores, including the resurrected Napster, are legally and successfully selling tunes for a fee. See peer-to-peer network and DRM.
Developed in Germany
MP3 was developed in the late 1980s by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. It uses perceptual audio coding to compress the data by eliminating frequencies that would not normally be heard because they overlap and cancel each other. See ID3 tag, iPod, AAC, perceptual audio coding and cuckoo egg.
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