MP3

MP3 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer III. It is not a separate format, but a part of MPEG-1 video encoding format, developed by MPEG group in early 1990's. Too often people refer MP3 as MPEG-3, which is incorrect, because such format doesn't even exist.

MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3) is a method to store good quality audio into small files by using psychoacoustics in order to get rid of the data from the audio that most of the humans can't hear.

MP3's bitrates vary from 8kbps (that is 8 kilobits per second, not kilobytes) to 320kbps. When MP3 phenomenom began in 1996, most of the audio files were encoded using 128kbps bitrate, which is still the most popular bitrate in the world -- although most of the people agree that by using slightly higher bitrates, like 192kbps or 256kbps, the audio quality can be compared with the CD quality.

Related Guides

Extract MP3 from YouTube, Google Video etc.- This short guide goes through the process of getting audio from video clips shown on sites like YouTube, Google Video, MySpace, iFilm and Metacafe. Any software used in this guide is freeware.

Join AVI files with VBR MP3 audio using VirtualDUBMOD- This article covers the process of using VirtualDUBMOD to join together two AVI files that contain VBR MP3 audio. Using VirtualDUBMOD solves some problems that arise while trying this with the original VirtualDUB client.

Converting DVD movies into .avi using AutoGK- This is a guide to use the very simple AutoGK to convert your DVD movies into ac3 or mp3 .avis with excellent quality final results.

How to split uncut MP3 files using Cue sheets- In this quick and simple guide, we will show you how to split uncut MP3 files into individual tracks using the freeware program Medieval CUE splitter. Please be noted that you will need to have an accompanying Cue Sheet for any method to work. Usually these couple of files are generated by programs like EAC (Exact Audio Copy), CDRWin, BPM Studio, GoldWave or similar.

Ripping DVD video files into MP3 for playback on media devices- In this quick guide you will learn how to make an MP3 file from DVD video files of concert DVDs or any DVD for that matter. The MP3 can later be played back on your PC or on portable media players. For the guide we will be using two simple freeware programs. The first program is called Free DVD to MP3 ripper. Afterwards we will be combining the MP3 files made into one large MP3 file using MakeitOne MP3 Album Maker.

How to play MP3 files on Xbox 360- This article discusses how you can get the multimedia content in your MP3 files to play on an Xbox 360 console. It will provide several different methods based on the multimedia support of the Xbox 360 console and may be updated regularly with Xbox 360 updates.

How to convert FLAC files to MP3- Have you ever spent the time obtaining an album that you sought after, only to find out that the files are all in FLAC format? FLAC is a fine format, until you realize you can't play it in your hungry iPod. This article will allow you to successfully convert FLAC files to a standard, high-quality MP3 files using free software you probably already have.

How to create your own ringtones using Audacity- This quick and simple guide will teach you how to use the excellent freeware program Audacity to create your own ringtones and export them as MP3 files. You can then move these files to your mobile phone using a USB cable or Bluetooth or any other method of your choosing.

Synonyms

MPEG-1 Audio Layer III

Related glossary terms

Related software tools

	Absolute MP3 Splitter Converter (Shareware) Absolute MP3 Splitter Converter is a powerful audio split, merge and convert software, which can split your large audio file into small pieces and merge audio files in one large file, conver
	Apollo MP3 Player (Freeware) Very good basic MP3 player with awesome decoding routines. Unfortunately lacks few modern functions, but absolutely worth trying.
	Arial CD Ripper (Adware) Arial CD Ripper is a versatile and easy to use tool for CD grabbing and audio conversion.It can extract all your favourite CD into MP3 ,WAV, OGG,FLAC,APE
	Audacity for Windows (Open source) Audacity is a free, open sourced audio editor.
	Audio CD Ripper (Freeware) Grab music from audio CD tracks and save them as WAV, WMA, OGG or MP3 files
	BeSplit (Freeware) BeSplit is a little tool that allows fixing the incorrect headers in AC3 or OGG files as well as cutting various audio formats.
	BeSweet (Freeware) Ultimate tool for all the audio conversions you ever need in video editing.
	BeSweetGUI (Freeware) Graphical user interface for BeSweet.
	Blaze Media Pro (Shareware) Blaze Media Pro is an all-in-one multimedia tool with audio and video playback, conversion, and playlists as well as audio editing and recording, and tons more.
	CD to MP3 Maker (Shareware) CD Ripper, CD/WAVE to MP3 Encoder, MP3 to CD/WAVE Decoder software
	CDRWin (Shareware) CDRWin is a disc duplicator with limited pre-mastering functions
	Cucusoft All Audio/Video to MP3/WAV Converter (Shareware) Cucusoft All Audio/Video to MP3/WAV Converter is a MP3/WAV creator from almost all kinds of windows Audio and Video media file.
	eac3to (Freeware) eac3to is a small commandline utility that converts E-AC3, TrueHD, PCM, DTS-HD and FLAC tracks to AC3/DTS/FLAC and more.
	Foobar 2000 (Freeware) Foobar is an advanced audio player for audiophiles
	Free WMA to MP3 Converter (Freeware) Free WMA to MP3 Converter can convert Windows Media files to MP3 files which can be played in MP3 Players.
	ImTOO MP3 WAV Converter (Shareware) ImTOO MP3 WAV Converter is a audio converter.
	iTunes (Freeware) iTunes is a media player and organizer software for Windows platform from Apple that allows tight integration with the iPod players.
	Jet Audio Basic (Freeware) Jet Audio is an all-in-one media player. It plays most audio and video formats, supports subtitles, etc.
	LAME (Open source) Widely used and probably one of the best MP3 encoder available for file conversion.
	Media Player Classic (Open source) Media Player Classic is an extremely light-weight media player for Windows. It looks just like the good-old Media Player v6.4, but has lots of nice extra features.
	Medieval CUE splitter (Open source) CUE Splitter is a freeware tool that can split a single big audio track, mostly an album or a compilation, into the relative individual audio tracks, using informations contained in the asso
	mp3DirectCut (Freeware) The MP3 cut tool that keeps the MP3 encoded
	MP3Gain (Open source) MP3Gain adjust the volumes of MP3 files or albums
	MP3Producer (Shareware) MP3Producer is a program which extracts tracks from audio CD and converts them to MP3 files. The program can work in tree modes: CD to MP3, CD to WAV, WAV to MP3.
	mp3Split (Freeware) mp3Split splits MP3 files into smaller segments.
	MP3TagEditor (Shareware) Audio utility that takes care of all your ID3v1 tags needs.
	Oggdrop Vorbis (Freeware) Ogg Vorbis is a high quality, free and unpatented audio compression format
	RealPlayer (Freeware) RealPlayer is a universal media player that plays video and music in virtually any format.
	VLC (Open source) VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...
	Winamp Full (Freeware) Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows.
	Windows Media Player (Freeware) Windows Media Player is the official multimedia player from Microsoft. Player provides all the features of a modern media player.