What is the difference between MP3 and MP4 and so on and so on…?
The biggest differences, as far as I know, are things like sound quality, size and compatibility with players both on the computer and off, i.e. mp3 players. .wav files allegedly have the best sound quality, as they are basically CD format files, but also are huge and take up a lot of space. Many mp3 players won’t play this format. .mp3 is the main file format, accepted by all players, and is basically a compression of .wav files. So, they are smaller on your computer and mp3 player, and generally some of the sound quality is lost in its conversion from a .wav file. A lot of other formats, such as .aac and .wma are just file formats of specific companies, i.e. iTunes and Microsoft. Those companies just want to make it difficult to play the files they have licensing rights to on other competing companies’ players, and they succeed as far as various mp3 players go with making it difficult–you can’t play .aac on anything but iPods, .wma on anything but Zunes, Creative players and maybe s
