Digital Audio Formats Demystified
Digital music has quickly taken center stage in the entertainment arena. In April 1999, the term MP3 became the most frequently searched term on Internet search engines. But, what is this new digital music phenomenon?

MP3 - The standardized file extension for MPEG audio compression file formats (MPEG-1 and MPEG 2/Audio Layer III) was developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG). Their unique process enables standard digital music files to be compressed into smaller .

MP3 files , Audio files found on CDs (.WAV format) average between 30-50 MB per song. With low bit-rate compression, MP3 offers virtually the same near-CD quality sound, at about one tenth the original file size.

Thus, a 30MB 3-minute song stored as a .WAV file at 44KHz (standard for CD audio) is only about 3MB after MP3 compression. As a gauge, 1 MB is typically equivalent to 1 minute of music in compressed MP3 format (at 128kbps).

Changing the way people experience music MP3 and the Internet have changed the way people experience music. These small file sizes enables users to quickly download music and store them easily. Although MP3 is the most popular compression format for music, there are other digital audio formats, such as: WAV – Jointly developed by Microsoft and IBM, it's the standard file format for PC sound and digital audio. When you rip music tracks from audio CDs, they will be converted from these source files (WAV format) to compressed audio file formats such as MP3 or WMA.

WMA – Windows Media Audio: This audio file compression format is similar to MP3 (developed by Microsoft), offering essentially the same audio quality as MP3, but at smaller file sizes, up to 50 percent less. It also incorporates DRM (Digital Rights Management) to combat music piracy.

RealAudio – Developed by RealNetworks, the RealAudio G2 format is a proprietary encoding format for audio and video, commonly used for streaming audio and video on the Internet. Other less-popular proprietary encoding / compression formats include: ASF and formats developed by Liquid Audio and Audible.com.

More people listen to MP3 music, use MP3 software programs and hardware devices than any other compressed CD-quality audio format today.