How MP3 Files Are Being Used by Music Lovers
The mp3 songs revolution, like the cassette tape and the CD before it, has changed how music is collected, stored, listened to and distributed. Its wildly popular appeal grew from an unexpected source: music lovers on the Internet who were thrilled to have a whole new way to enjoy their collections and to share them with friends. For many people, the mp3 format is also a reminder of how disruptive 10x innovations change markets and who wins and loses when a technological breakthrough takes hold.
The mp3 file format uses a mathematical trick to take the same musical information found in a 30-megabyte wav file and squish it down to about a tenth its size. This allows the music to be stored in a much smaller amount of space, and it is easily transferable.
Almost any modern computer, smartphone or tablet can play MP3 files. It is even possible to play them on some car entertainment systems. MP3 files typically include ID3 tag information that can be used to identify the song or album, and often they are used with a special media player software that organizes them into albums and playlists.
MP3 Songs: Top Platforms for Free and Fast Downloads
When purchasing music online, some services offer the MP3 version of the song at a higher resolution than others, such as 192 megabytes per second (kbps). Increasingly, these high-resolution songs are offered free of copy protection, making it easier to share them on peer-to-peer networks and through file sharing websites.
Other codecs are available that do not reduce the sound quality, such as AAC. These formats may be slightly less efficient than the mp3 codec, but they retain all of the original music data. Some listeners find these formats to sound better, and they are known as lossless codecs.
Musicians have been experimenting with various ways to distribute their MP3 files to fans on the Web. Some musicians have created a blog where they post links to download their music, while others provide it for free on a small number of sites. Jonathan Coulton, a musician known for his comedic folk songs, has a blog where he posts several of his songs and provides links to purchase the full album.
Regardless of how a musician decides to distribute his music, it’s important that the files are properly formatted and contain the correct metadata so that he can be paid for the use of the song in film and television, if it is used. This can be done by using a tool such as MusicXRay or TAXI.