What is MP3

About MP3 Format

MP3, which is an acronym for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, is an audio encoding format. It is one of the most popular audio compression and decompression (codec) format today because of its ability to put music into manageable files, thus making downloading over the internet easy. Because MP3 files are small, they can easily be transferred across the Internet.

As the name “MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3” implies, MP3 uses Layer 3 (one of three MPEG-1 coding schemes) to compress audio signals. Using perceptual audio coding (“lossy” coding) and psychoacoustic compression (using much less space), Layer 3 removes all superfluous and irrelevant parts of a sound signal and adds MDCT (Modified Discrete Cosine Transform) to implement a filter bank. This, while removing all extra parts, compresses large audio recordings with a ratio of 12:1 while retaining original audio quality.

MP3 files can be downloaded from the Internet, or can be played by software on your computer. However, even though many MP3 files are offered on CD’s, most normal CD players (such as a Diskman or your car stereo’s CD-Player) will not currently play MP3 audio files directly. You will need either a special MP3 player or a software program such as WinAmp or Real Jukebox on your computer in order to actually listen to the files. The technology exist that will play both regular audio and MP3 Cd’s, but these players are still very expensive.

Related Software

Leawo Video Converter (MP3 Converter): an easy video and audio solution for any format conversions, with fast speed and excellent output guaranteed. You can merely convert audio or can extract audio from video and then carry out audio conversion. MP3 Converter not only converts common audios to MP3 format, but also converts MP3 audio to other audio formats.

Leawo DVD Ripper (DVD to MP3 Ripper): a useful DVD ripping program for users to rip DVD to video and audio in various formats. So with it you can enjoy great convenience to convert DVD to MP3 audio for appreciation. This DVD to MP3 Ripper enables you to convert DVD to MP3 with fast speed and excellent output quality.

Related Source
WMV, FLAC, MP4, M4A, AAC, ASF, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, Kmplayer

References
How to convert MP4 to MP3
How to convert AVI to MP3
How to Download and Convert YouTube Video to MP3 for Music Enjoyment?

External Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3