A
codec used to store music. mp3 is short for MPEG-1 Layer 3.
Many argue that
mp3's are of lesser quality than CDs. This is partially true. CDs are recorded at a sample rate of 44100 hz, and so are most mp3's.
Mp3's ripped, or encoded, from CD are ALWAYS of equal or lesser quality than the original music on the CD, because quality can never be improved over the original when copying anything. However, mp3's ripped from vinyl records,
reel-to-reel tapes or uncompressed digital audio can certainly be of better quality than CD quality.
The reason why mp3 files are about a tenth of the size of the same music recorded to CD is that CDs use a 30 year old codec, whereas the mp3 codec is much more modern, thus allowing for better compression.
The problem with mp3 quality is that people are so uneducated. When the average joe gets an mp3 player and wants to
encode his music collection, he does so at the default
bitrate of the ripping program he is using. For example, foolish rippers such as the evil
RealPlayer state that 64
kbps is CD quality. 256 kbps+ is the best to rip at for quality.
For some, but not all audio, it is wisest to use a variable bitrate (
VBR). This encodes at a higher bitrate for more musical data, and a lesser bitrate for less data. For example, a VBR encoding of a song may have a lesser bitrate for the introduction where only one instrument is playing, than for the more intricate passages where more detailed sound is being made.
iTunes is the best mp3 ripper I have ever used, unless you want to use LAME from the *NIX command line.
Mp3 audio can be played on a variety of devices, including but certainly not limited to: Personal computers, most modern DVD players, portable mp3 players, such as Apple's iPod, or any inferior knock-off devices made by other companies.
In the mid-1990s, members of the GNU project created sets of software tools that allowed CD audio to be 'ripped' to a
digital storage device, such as a harddrive. With the aid of software such as Winamp, iTunes or
XMMS, this music could be played back at almost-CD-quality. Optionally, this ripped audio could be shared to others by floppy disk, or over networks, such as the internet.
Then Napster happened, and the average joe could get involved. Napster ended in a messy legal battle, involving Metallica, and the RIAA.
Napster's flaw was the fact that it had a central server, which could be shut down. The newer, more robust networks that rose to take
napster's place do not have this problem, instead relying on 'ultrapeers'. See Kazaa, Morpheus,
Gnutella, Overnet,
eDonkey...
Some, such as the iTunes music store, have decided to sell
music files. THESE ARE NOT
MP3's. the iTunes music store sells m4p files, the DRM-crippled equivalent of
m4a's. The codec for these files is the
AAC codec, used for new
high fidelity DVD audio. The Sony connect service sells DRM-crippled ATRAC3 encoded files, known for their lack of quality.
See also LAME, napster, p2p, ogg (AKA vorbis), AAC,
m4a,
wav, CD, RIAA.