Mp3 is said to be a patented digital audio encoding format. It is a very general audio format using a form of loose data compression. Mp3 is a very common audio format for consumer audio storage as well as a factor standard of digital audio compression for transfer and playback of music on digital audio players. MP3 is an audio specific format that was first designed by the Moving Picture experts group and later by many companies
A MP3 is designed to decrease the amount of data required to represent the audio recording and still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio for the listeners. The Mp3 file is created using the setting of 128 kbit/s which will result in a file 11 times smaller than the CD file created from the original source. A mp3 file can be created at very higher or lower rates, with higher or lower bit rates which results in higher and lower quality.
This type of compression works by reducing accuracy of sound that is considered to beyond the auditory resolution ability of most of the listeners. This method is known as perpetual coding. It basically utilizes psychoacoustic models to discard or reduce precision of components less audible to human hearing, and then record the remaining information in an efficient manner. Compression efficiency of encoders is typically defined by the bit rate, because compression ratio depends on the bit depth and sampling rate of the input signal.
After 1994 mp3 files began to spread on the internet. The popularity of Mp3 increased with the advent of Null soft audio player and Win amp in the year 1997. You can even download mp3 from various websites available on internet. The small size of mp3 files enables widespread sharing of music ripped from CDs that allows you to download Mp3 easily which was considered impossible earlier. But this ease of creating and sharing mp3 has resulted in widespread copyright infringement. Despite the popularity of mp3 format, online music retailers often use other proprietary formats that are encrypted in order to make it difficult to use purchased music files.