What is an Mp3 File Format, and How Does It Work?
You may have heard of an mp3 file. Almost certainly, you’ve used one before whether or not you were aware of it. The majority of music files you have on your devices are mp3 format. If you’ve listened to music on your phone or computer, chances are you’ve listened to an mp3 file. It turns out, however, there’s a lot more going on than a song on your phone when it comes to mp3 files. The following will explore the nature of mp3 file formats and explain how they work and why you might use them.
What Is An Mp3 File Format?
A file is a digital object—an item on your computer that stores information, data, commands, or settings. In most situations, files are displayed as icons on your computer or digital device. In the majority of computer situations, double-clicking on the file will open within the default program. Most files are created by computer software programs. For example, when you type in a text editing program, you can usually save the text file to your computer.
An mp3 is a type of file—a file format—and this type of file stores and plays audio. This can mean music, sound effects, interviews, speeches, or any other type of audio that has been recorded. The mp3 file format was developed by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG), and the name of the file was chosen as a nickname for MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio layer 3.
The mp3 was developed for a lot of reasons, but in particular, the goal was to create a way to store audio recordings that didn’t take up an insane amount of storage space or lengthy transferring times. If you compare mp3 files to the Waveform Audio file (the second most popular option), you’ll notice a considerable space difference right off the bat. Take, for example, an audio recording that worked out to be 30 MB in Waveform audio file format. That same audio recording would amount to 3 MB in an mp3 file. That’s a huge difference, especially for someone who wants a few hundred songs on their device.
How Can I Convert Files To Mp3 Format?
Given the popularity of mp3 files and their ease of use, a number of free online converters exist that can help you turn a video, an audio recording, or a song into a nice, compact mp3. Music lovers at vidd.ly/convert-youtube-to-mp3 point out that the most common conversion tends to be from YouTube video to downloadable mp3. This is because a lot of people want to save the audio from specific live recordings of their favorite musicians or interviews or motivational speeches to listen to when they’re away from the internet.
How Come The Mp3 File Is So Much Smaller?
In order to accomplish the smaller file size, which makes for easier storage and transferring, an mp3 file has gone through a compression stage. This compression stage involves removing the parts of the audio that the human ear either cannot hear or cannot hear well. For some reason, when the human ear hears multiple sounds at the same time, it only senses and acknowledges the louder sound. As well, humans can only hear within a certain range, meaning incredibly high pitches (think a dog whistle which sounds silent to us but can be heard by animals), and incredibly low pitches are often removed from the file. The average person would not be able to hear these things before they were removed, so to save space, the compression process takes them out.
When it comes to mp3 file formats, the compression is irreversible. Since something has been taken out of the file completely, there isn’t a program or converter that can guess what sounds were in there previously and fill in the gaps.
As a side note, it is crucial for health and safety that we mention this: just because you can’t hear something doesn’t mean it isn’t affecting your body. Sound waves can still be occurring. You should never assume that just because you can’t hear something, it isn’t impacting you and the people and animals around you. Sound is powerful.
The above information should have explained the benefits and uses of the mp3 file format as well as the reasons someone might seek out this type of file over other ways to store audio recordings. If you have an mp3 file you’d like to open outside of the double-click into the default program pathway, all you need to do is right-click on the file and select [Open With], which will reveal to you a list of programs that will support the audio file. You can choose whichever you prefer.
