MP3

Perhaps you have heard your child or your child's friends use unfamiliar terms and expressions—such as "MP3," "Ogg Vorbis," "Kazaa," and "CD ripping"—and wondered just what they were talking about. Perhaps you have also heard about lawsuits stemming from the distribution of MP3 files and wondered if your child is involved in anything illegal. This section on MP3 technology is intended to help you understand what an MP3 file is, how one works, and how such a little file could cause such a big controversy.

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Select a question below to learn more about MP3. Use the navigation to the left to learn about other technologies.

1. What is an MP3?
2. What do I need to listen to MP3s?
3. What is so great about MP3s?
4. Will my child get in trouble with the authorities if she or he downloads an illegal MP3 from the Internet?
5. Do MP3s serve any educational purpose?
6. How are MP3s made?
7. Is MP3 the only file-compression format?

What's so great about MP3s?

MP3 makes use of something called data compression. MP3 encoding software takes what would otherwise be an unmanageably large audio file and shrinks it to a much, much smaller size. This in turn makes it easier to send and receive MP3 files on the Internet. The downside to the MP3 format is that it is a "lossy" form of compression, meaning that the sound quality is slightly degraded.

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