September 2000
Move over CD, make way for MP3 — the newest and easiest way to download high-quality music.
You'll also need to download an MP3 player software program, which decodes the MP3 files so your computer's sound card can play them — and plenty of programs are available on the Web as freeware or shareware. The most popular Windows MP3 players are WinAMP and Sonique. For Mac users, MacAMP is a good choice.
Want to take the music with you? You can buy a portable MP3 player and download up to two hours' worth of songs. MP3 players can be found at major electronics stores with prices ranging from $150 to $500.
MP3 is short for MPEG 1 Audio Layer 3, an ingenious means of storing digital audio or video files based on Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standards. What does that mean to you? MP3 technology lets you compress music files to a fraction of their size without degrading sound quality. You can then download those CD-quality music files to play on your computer or to a stand-alone MP3 player to enjoy on the go. 
MP3 technology is the hottest thing to happen to music since the invention of the portable cassette player. In fact "MP3" is currently the second most popular term on search engines. Why? Because MP3 files offer high-fidelity music without taking up a lot of disk space on your computer. For example, CDs and .WAV files require 10MB (megabytes) for every minute of sound, whereas MP3 files require approximately 1MB of space for that same minute. So the average song takes up just 3 to 5MB, making it a reasonable download even for people who access the Internet through a slow connection.
Lots of controversy surrounds MP3 and whether it's ethical to download free music. The files themselves are not the issue, but many believe it's unethical not to pay for music. The concerns center around copyright infringement issues — basically, MP3 site owners upload the files from CDs they own, allowing other users to download them for free. The major MP3 sites showcase authorized files for download, and some sites offer a paid subscription service.
To play MP3 files, you need a minimum 75MHz Pentium computer with 16MB of RAM, a 16-bit sound card, a CD-ROM drive plus speakers or headphones. And don't forget about disk space — 3 to 5MB per file can add up quickly.
Get your groove on at these MP3 sites:
