January 1988 saw MPEG itself established, its full title Moving Picture Experts Group, not an organization in itself, but a subcommittee of the ISO/IEC (International Standards Organization/International Electrotechnical Commission).

Fraunhofer received a patent in April 1989 for MP3 in Germany and in 1992 Fraunhofer’s algorithm was integrated in MPEG-1 for which the specification was published in 1993.

MPEG-2 and its specification was published in 1995.

January 26th, 1995 saw Fraunhofer apply for the patent of MP3 in the U.S.A. and it was granted on November 26th, 1996.

September 1998 Fraunhofer contacted independent developers of MP3 encoders (rippers) and decoders (players) that were based on the ISO source code. Fraunhofer had patent protection on the algorithm they were using and developers who wanted to develop their software applications further would have to apply to Fraunhofer for license.

Sub Pop, an independent record label, began in February 1999 to distribute selected music tracks in the MP3 format.

Is MP3 legal?

Yes, MP3 is simply a file format and is very legal.  The act of selling, trading and listening to MP3's falls under normal U.S. copyright law.  It is legal to trade a MP3 file if the song's copyright holder has granted permission to download and play the song.  For example, all MP3.com artists have agreed to distribute their music to visitors of the website.  It is illegal to sell, trade or listen to MP3's if the artist hasn't given express, written permission to do so.

Truly legal MP3's are rare and often the songs are from lesser known artists.  Because of these difficulties, most MP3 trading on the Internet is technically "illegal".  Reality dictates that downloading and playing MP3's is not a serious offense that warrants any sort of prosecution or investigation.  In many ways, MP3 trading is likened to the copying of movies or television programs.  Many search engines and software utilities have been forged to help MP3 users trade song files.  These search engines and utilities are often backed by large companies, who don't seem to be afraid of the medium's controversial nature. 

In general, if you simply listen to songs for personal use, there is no real problem.  If you start using MP3 to make bootleg CD's, or begin selling them in bulk, you will start to find trouble.

How do I listen to MP3's?

There are many different ways of listening to MP3's.  In fact, the process can be as simple or as sophisticated as the user desires.  

In the most simple case, no special software is needed to play or download MP3's.  Any web browser is able to download a MP3 file and the Windows Media Player, which comes as part of the Windows operating system on Windows PCs, is capable of playing them.  However, most MP3 users do not find these basic tools adequate. 

Most MP3 users prefer a customized MP3 player program such as WinAMP and download utilities such as GoZilla, Getright or the new Napster.  These programs make the experience of listening to your MP3's a little more pleasant and prevent headaches often associated with sorting and playing more than one MP3 file on your computer.  

MP3 Players
In general, MP3 players are practically identical to other multimedia players such as the Real Audio player or Apple's QuickTime.  Files can be played by either double clicking on files themselves or by launching the player and selecting a given song as if it were a word processing document or any other file on your computer.

Portable MP3 Players
Alternatively, you can take your MP3 files with you, just about anywhere.  Portable MP3 players are now more popular than ever.  You can buy these digital players at most major electronic stores and countless places online.  To learn more about these players, read Portable MP3 Players or see a detailed example of one here. The Apple iPod is one of the most popular players.

How do I find MP3's?
MP3's can be found all over the web.  As mentioned above, MP3's can always be found at large MP3 portal sites such as MP3.com or MP3now.com.  However, such sites offer a relatively small selection and only account for music that has been deemed "legal".

Several search engines have been developed specifically for MP3's. Lycos MP3 Search, Scour and Palavista are a few of these useful search engines.  Additionally, software utilities like Napster allow MP3 users to search for, and trade, MP3's through a client - not unlike AOL's Instant Messenger.  As the MP3 phenomenon grows, more efficient searching and downloading tools will be available for MP3 users.

For a list of the best MP3 sites on the Internet visit MP3 sites section.

How do I make my own MP3's?
In some sense, it is impossible to "make" MP3's.  Unlike MIDI files, which are lists of instructions given to computer based instruments, the MP3 format is not a tool for the creation of music.  In other words, a musician cannot create music in MP3 form.  However, existing formats can be converted to the MP3 format for better compression without a reduction in sound quality.

Music files are quite bulky and CD tracks, in their original form, are far to large to be transported over the Internet.  The process of converting a CD track to a MP3 is relatively simple and can be accomplished with many software packages such as Audio Catalyst, MusicMatch Jukebox and others.  These programs come in quite handy, as an entire CD can be stored on a hard drive at a fraction of the space or on a Zip disk.

What is a portable MP3 Player?

MP3 players are the hottest gadgets on the market and for good reason: they allow you to hear all that great music that's available on the Web and take it with you everywhere you go. Weighing in at only a few ounces, these battery-powered devices are simple to use. Most portable MP3 players come bundled with software including a ripper that allows you to convert songs from your CD collection into MP3 files on your computer's hard drive and a file manager that lets you organize, store and transfer MP3s from your PC onto the portable player. First, just download some MP3 files from the Web (free sites or from an online store) to your computer or rip some tracks off a CD. Once you're finished, using the portable player's supplied software program (usually on the supplied CD) to manage your music files, transfer the files onto your portable MP3 player via your PC's USB port. (You would connect the portable player to your computer by way of the supplied USB cable) Detach the cable, and you're ready to hit the road. (You may need some time to get familiar with the navigation and operation of your players music manager software.)

Portable MP3 players are just a fraction of the size and weight of a personal CD player, and since the music files are stored in solid-state flash memory, your music won't skip. And for music lovers, MP3 is a dream come true. Tracks by thousands upon thousands of artists, from the established to the obscure, are available for download on the Internet. Some outlets charge a small fee for downloads, but a lot of independent music is available for free. 

Wal-Mart stores have joined the online market, offering music downloads for 88 cents per song and using the Microsoft WMA format. Apple has their own online music store called iTunes for downloads to your Apple iPod player. You can store, organize and listen to music right from your computer and download it easily to a player that you can take on the road, which means you may never have to go to a record store again. And with the music industry increasingly looking to the Internet as a venue for commercial music distribution, now's the ideal time to get ahead of the game and start growing your MP3 music collection. 

Beware of current incompatibilities as the market wars continue to determine what formats and copy protection schemes will eventually win out. As in the past, Microsoft and Apple have different approaches, meaning you need to do your research to determine your final music playing solutions. Some players may not be able to decode all formats.

Consider these important Portable MP3 player features:

Portable mp3 Player: Storage Size Matters

A little background on mp3 player technology may help you figure out what you need - MP3 players have four components, a decoder chip, a storage system, a display, and a control system. The decoder chip and control systems are all made from very compact parts that are very cheap to make - only a few dollars. So it is the storage system that represents the bulk of the cost, and determines the size of the player and its main features.

Let's look at the different storage technologies used in mp3 players:

If you buy a player that stores about a dozen songs, the display size and features are not very important. If you opt for a player that can store thousands of songs, the display size becomes very important as you will spend more time navigating to find the song you want. Although other companies are catching up, Apple's iPod is the clear winner in the display size, quality and navigational areas. The iPod is not just for the Macintosh. It works well with Windows computers too.

Convenience of mp3 Players

From the table you can easily see that the disk drive or "jukebox" players are the most convenient for quick access to many songs. With blank CD's being so cheap the MP3 CD players offer the cheapest access to many tracks but at some inconvenience: you have to burn, carry around and change the CD's.

mp3 Player Reliability

The most reliable players are the ones with Flash storage because they use no moving parts for storage that could wear out. If you already use flash cards, in a digital camera for example, you might consider picking a player that uses the same kind of card. USB flash card readers are readily available for all 6 formats of flash card so it is easy to put your songs on the cards from any modern PC.

mp3 Player Software and Connectivity

Another important factor to consider is which kind of computer you have and whether the software bundled with the player will work well on your system. All the players work with Windows PC's and most use the USB 1.1 connection. The recent jukebox players use the new faster, USB 2.0. 

Players from Apple and Creative Labs have Firewire (IEEE1394) connections. If you plan to update your player regularly with many mp3's you should definitely choose a USB2.0 or Firewire connected player. Creative Labs Nomad and Apple's iPod work well for Macintosh users, but don't forget that the iPod is available for Windows users to.

Audio Formats

All the players do a good job on mp3 format files. Microsoft has another audio format, WMA which is more space efficient and quite popular but not all the players support it. Apple's proprietary format used in their popular music download store works well on the iPod but is not available on other players yet.

General Recommendations

If you are just exploring the world of mp3 players or buying for a young person, you should probably go for one of the cheaper Flash memory players such as the Nomad IIc.

If you want the state of the art with no compromise on capacity or convenience go for a jukebox like the new Creative Labs Zen or the Apple iPod.

If you are already weighed down with portable gadgets consider a device that integrates mp3 player and other functionality like the Fuji Finepix digital camera or the ultra-slim Casio Exilim digital camera and mp3 player. New and already very popular devices from IRiver include an FM tuner and the ability to do voice recording, direct recording from the radio and high quality recording from an external source.

Musicians will find the special speed change feature of the Nomad Jukebox and Zen products very useful for learning musical phrases. These players can slow down the audio as much as 50% without changing the pitch of the recording.

Where to find mp3 Downloads and mp3 Files

All the players come with software to "rip" audio tracks from your CD's and put them into mp3 form. One of the best download sources you can try for free is EMusic. They have a large source of big name artists and it is very easy to download whole albums.