What is MP3?
MP3 is a near-CD quality file format for sound files, and is very popular for music on the web. It's becoming more popular for use online because of its powerful compression. For example, you can get hundreds of songs on a single CD using the MP3 format.
MP3
MP3 is a digital music format which allows CD tracks to be reduced to around a tenth of their normal size without a significant loss of quality.
This means that for the first time it's become practical to make music available for download over the internet as download times have been drastically cut.
MP3 strips out a lot of the information recorded in a song that our ears aren't able to hear and uses complicated maths to reduce the file size.
How to play MP3s
MP3s can be played on your computer using programs like RealOne, WinAmp, iTunes or Windows Media Player. You can also burn them onto CDs and play them on a CD player (provided it has the capability to play MP3s.)