What are MP3s?
MP3s are digital audio files that have been shrunken down while still maintaining their original sound quality. Before there were MP3s, digital audio files took hours to download. But on a 56K modem, most MP3s can download in just a few minutes. MP3s are widely recognized as the most popular format for storing and listening to music on the World Wide Web.
MP3 is the short form for MPEG3, which stands for “Motion Picture Experts Group, Audio Layer 3”. The MP3 format produces CD-quality sound in a highly compressed file. The technology creates sound files a tenth the size of standard CD music files with very little loss of sound quality. Due to their size and relatively high quality, MP3s have become a popular way to distribute music on the Internet.