MP3

MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format invented and standardised in 1991 by a team of engineers working in the framework of the ISO/IEC MPEG audio committee under the chairmanship of Professor Hans Musmann (University of Hannover - Germany). It was designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners. In popular usage, MP3 also refers to files of sound or music recordings stored in the MP3 format on computers.

Online music resources

Tools such as iRate try to make it easier to find music that matches the listener's tastes. There are several online music stores. Apple's iTunes store is presently the most popular commercial online music offering. Independent artists are able to use smaller sites to provide distribution. A controversial MP3 portal is the Russian site AllOfMP3.com, which offers downloads of thousands of albums and video clips by mainstream artists, priced at $20 per gigabyte.

Related Topics:
IRate - Online music store - ITunes - AllOfMP3.com - Gigabyte

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There are also several online columnists who edit news sites focused on digital music and the grassroots community it spawned. They include Richard Menta's MP3 Newswire, an early MP3 news site started in 1998, Jon Newton's P2Pnet, and Thomas Mennecke's Slyck.com. Other sites like Download.com and Vitaminic.com which allow artists to choose to post their own music for free download.

Related Topics:
Richard Menta - MP3 Newswire - Download.com - Vitaminic.com

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