What is the MP3 format?

MP3 is a format that reduces the size of music files to about one-tenth of a normal CD file; it does this primarily by eliminating frequencies that the human ear cannot hear. Sound quality suffers when such compression is done on file size, but many listeners find this cost worth paying for greater accessibility to their music collection. The MP3 format became popular on the Internet as the small size of its files made it easy to download songs.

Mp3 players

The first MP3 player, the MPMan F10, was created by the South Korean company SaeHan Information Systems in 1997 and could hold 32 Megabytes (approximately ¾ of a CD). This has improved tremendously over the years as the popularity of MP3 increased. MP3 players are now firmly in the mainstream with flagship products like the iPod, and MP3 players on the market today are capable of storing 160 gigabytes, with literally hundreds of albums and videos.

As a result of so much music on your MP3 player, finding a tune can be problematic, so programs and techniques have emerged to help you listen to the music you love. Many people use iTunes or a media library tool like mediamonkey to organize their tracks into playlists. You can also “tag” your music, so if you are looking for certain genres, such as rock, jazz, or classical, you can quickly and easily navigate through the appropriate tunes. The labels are limited only by your imagination; some people label their music for concepts like emotion, color, or location.

A problem with so many MP3 players may be that they play at different volumes because they come from so many different sources, causing you to continually change the volume while listening to your songs; For this, online tools like MP3Gain.net will help normalize (make the same volume) your music collection.

Put MP3 on your player

If you are looking for new MP3s, there are many sites to help you find your next favorite song; the classic MP3.com has reviews and options to buy; the new Seeqpod.com site is a great tool for searching, downloading and listening to MP3s on the web. Last.fm is also a great place to find new music that you like by typing in your favorite artists and browsing through tunes that you think are similar.

You can also convert your old discs and CDs to MP3 so you can listen to them on the go. There are several tools available for this, including the completely online resource at Media-Convert.

MP3 Player Accessories

It’s worth upgrading your headphones when you buy an MP3 player; the ones that come with most players are of poor quality. Batteries are also worth buying or considering when selecting your MP3 player; some achieve a pitiful 8 hours but with great capacity, while others can last more than 20 hours; perfect for travelers.

Companies have started to come up with ideas about using MP3 players other than traditional players; MP3 players are now popping up in guitar-shaped washers and toys to help shape your air guitar fantasies, also more integration with mobile phones and personal organizers like the hot-tipped iPhone.

Have MP3s changed how we listen to music?

Now, as music consumers, we have more access to different music than ever before; almost anyone can make music and upload it for the world to hear. As such, we have exposure to a lot more new music these days if we want to; Before the Internet and MP3s, the only way to do it would have been through radio. Listening habits have changed; now fewer people listen to albums in sequence; There are “random” playlists that scan through your entire music library, and there are “tags” for your tunes that help to play all the tracks in your collection that have a particular style.

As such, the focus of selling tunes has moved more towards buying individual tracks rather than buying albums. Even the album buying process has changed; Across the country, CD stores are closing as more and more people buy their music online. iTunes surpassed its 3 billionth download in the summer of 2007, and the download rate is increasing.

Today, more people listen to lower quality music; the music industry peaked with the advent of CDs as it reached the limit of human perception; Essentially, CDs cannot be improved. Paradoxically, the area of ​​growth of music formats now are those that are actually inferior to the formats of the past; although only hifi fans with expensive equipment may be the only ones able to distinguish between a high bit rate MP3 and a CD track.

The future?

Right now mp3 players are moving to flash drives instead of hard drives to store their information, this promises smaller, faster and quieter operation for future MP3 players. Going forward, MP3 players may eventually merge and be more integrated with all media so that one device plays your music, your video, is a digital camera, and allows you to surf the Internet on the go. The quality of the music should increase until it approaches that of CDs. Voice recognition software should make it easy to interface with your music, with Bluetooth features, which means you can interact with your PC and other users quickly; There is talk of the emergence of a peer-to-peer network using only the players themselves connected wirelessly. Batteries can become a thing of the past as power consumption decreases and solar power is all it takes to keep you with music all the time.