Introduction To MP3's
MP3 stands for MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) layer 3. It is a standard format for storing compressed music at about 12:1 compression. This means that on a normal CD (which can contain up to 74 minutes of music), almost 12 hours of MP3's can be stored, with no or little quality loss!
Information obtained from http://www.2look4.com/faq.html
Thanks to newer prossessors (since the original Pentium was released), MP3's can be decoded and played 'on the fly' and still have enough CPU time left to perform other tasks.
Ever want to listen to a CD, but then the CD finishes, and you don't want to listen to it again? Mp3's let you listen to any CD you want, any time you want without ejecting the current CD and putting another one in.
Have a CD with a song you don't like? With MP3's, you can delete the song and never have to listen to it again!
Want to listen to music, but don't want to hear lots of songs by the same artist? You can play your MP3's in any order you want, or many players can randomly select a song.
Want music on your computer, but don't want the music to take your whole hard drive? MP3's are so small (in comparison to wav's, and some other formats) that you can store many, many more songs in the same space. You can even encode the MP3's at a lower quality to reduce size even more.
Like your computer a 'little too much'? Buy the latest hardware for your computer and show it off! (personal expensive recommendation : SoundBlaster Live (retail) ~$450, Desktop Theater 5.1 (From Creative Labs) ~$800, or buy an expensive stereo system and connect it to your computer).
Do I need an excuse? I will just because I can!
Since MP3's are simply files on your computer, they cannot be illigal. However, music piracy laws apply to all formats of music (whether it be on a CD, tape or on the computer). This means you may not distribute copyrighted music (ie, music from a CD or tape), or copy music you do not own a legal copy of.
This law is not (entirely) to get people money. If artists do not get money from CD sales, they will not continue to release music! So remember, currently MP3's are not an alternative for obtaining music, simply a different way to playing them
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