Info about Mp3 Format
MP3 Format
MP3 Format
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players often referred to as MP3 players which are available under a variety of brands.
MP3 is an audio-specific format that was designed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as part of its MPEG-1 standard and later extended in MPEG-2 standard. The first MPEG subgroup – Audio group was formed by several teams of engineers at Fraunhofer IIS,University of Hannover, AT&T-Bell Labs, Thomson-Brandt, CCETT, and others. MPEG-1 Audio (MPEG-1 Part 3), which included MPEG-1 Audio Layer I, II and III was approved as a committee draft of ISO/IEC standard in 1991, finalized in 1992and published in 1993 (ISO/IEC 11172-3:1993). Backwards compatible MPEG-2 Audio (MPEG-2 Part 3) with additional bit rates and sample rates was published in 1995 (ISO/IEC 13818-3:1995)
Development
The MP3 audio data compression algorithm takes advantage of a limitation of human hearing called auditory masking. In 1894, Alfred Marshall Mayer reported that a tone could be made inaudible by another tone of lower frequency. Richard Ehmer described a complete set of auditory curves regarding this phenomenon in 1959. Ernst Terhardt created an algorithm describing auditory masking with high accuracy. This work added to a number of reports from authors dating back to Fletcher, and to the work that originally determined significant ratios and critical bandwidths.
Internet
During the end of 1994, MP3 files began to become widely popular and available on the Internet. The popularity of MP3s began to rise quickly with the availability of Nullsoft's audio player Winamp, which was released in 1997. In 1998, the first portable solid state digital audio player MPMan, developed by SaeHan Information Systems which is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, was released and the Rio PMP300 was sold afterwards, in spite of legal suppression efforts by the RIAA.
In November 1997, the website mp3.com began offering thousands of MP3s created by independent artists free of charge. The small size of MP3 files enabled widespread peer-to-peer file sharing of music ripped from CDs, which would have previously been nearly impossible. The first large peer-to-peer file sharing network, Napster, was launched in 1999.
The ease of creating and sharing MP3s resulted in widespread copyright infringement. Major record companies argued that this free sharing of music reduced sales, and called it "music piracy". They reacted by pursuing lawsuits against Napster (which was eventually shut down and later sold) and against individual users who engaged in file sharing.
Present
Nowadays, MP3 files are the go-to way to get music for personal use, as many stores selling CD’s are now going out of business. However instead of sites like Napster which distributed music illegally, most individuals are now paying for each song they get and download them to their MP3 players such as the well-known apple MP3 player, the iPod.