MP3: Difference between revisions

''For the video games, see [[Mario Party|Mario Party 3]] and [[Metroid Prime|Metroid Prime 3: Corruption]].''

 

Based on this fact, this is one of the main reasons why the MP3 format became so popular: thanks to its psychoacoustic model, you can strip a ''lot'' of information from the audio, and yet it still sounds pretty much the same as the original source. As a result, a medium-quality song encoded in MP3 format takes up very little space—usually 4 MB,<ref>a 4-minute song on 128 kbps MP3, very close to CD-quality audio, weighs in at 3.75 MB; 192 kbps, which takes a trained ear to distinguish from CD audio, is only half again as large</ref> ''much'' less than the 30-60 MB they usually take in a CD; and of course, back in 1995, when hard disk capacity and Internet bandwidth were at a very great premium (modems rarely went beyond the 28 kbps, and a CD could hold ''two medium hard drives!''), an audio format that could turn a massive file into a very small file was obviously the best choice to save your songs. Another very important reason is that MP3 decoders are very efficient: they use very little CPU time and very little memory, and can run on very small hardware, i.e. a computer from 1994, a portable MP3 player, a mobile phone, or, of course, a gaming console. Of course, the Intertubes and the earliest file sharing networks (Napster, Audiogalaxy, Kazaa), and the marketing of the iPod as a fashionable device, played a very big part on the MP3's popularity.

 

 

Interesting note - the original testing of the MP3 algorithms was done with "Tom's Diner" by [[Suzanne Vega]]. (The original acoustic version, not the hit remix by DNA)

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