MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding format that uses lossy data compression. The audio-specific data format was developed by the Motion Pictures Expert Group and by 1991 had become the standard format for audio files. MP3 players have become popular for playing music or audio in MP3 file format.
Psychoacoustics
MP3s use the science of psychoacoustics to reduce the size of audio files up to 90 percent. This is done by removing digital pieces of sound that cannot be heard by the human ear due to auditory masking. The final product is a sound recording that, due to the limitations of human hearing, is indistinguishable from the original CD-quality recording. Though MP3 files were originally created solely to be played on computers, popular MP3 players like the Apple iPod have led to the popular and widespread use of MP3 files among the general public.Wisegeek: What is an MP3?
References
Fast Facts
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Officially known as
"M-PEG-1, Layer 3"
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File extension
.mp3
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Became standard
1991
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Fact:
Bit rate limited to 320kbps
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MP3 frequencies
32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 144, 160, 192, 224, 256 and 320 kbps
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Fact:
Quality is lower than uncompressed audio from a CD
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Fact:
Produced by removing bits of sound that cannot naturally be heard by the human earWisegeek: What is an MP3?
