Shopping Product Reviews

MP3 Players: Past, Present and Future

What is the MP3 format?

MP3 is a format that reduces the size of music files to about 1/10 of a normal CD file; It does this primarily by removing frequencies that the human ear cannot hear. Sound quality suffers when such file-size compression is performed, but many listeners feel that greater accessibility to their music collection is worth the cost. The MP3 format became popular on the Internet as its small file size made it easy to download melodies.

mp3 players

The first MP3 player, the MPMan F10, was created by the South Korean company SaeHan Information Systems in 1997 and could hold 32 megabytes (about ¾ of a CD). This has improved greatly over the years as MP3’s popularity has increased. Mp3 players are now firmly in the mainstream with flagship products like the iPod, and mp3 players on the market today are capable of storing 160 gigabytes, holding literally hundreds of albums and videos.

As a result of so much music on your MP3 player, finding a tune can be troublesome, so programs and techniques have emerged to help you listen to the music you love. Many people use iTunes or a media library tool like mediamonkey to organize their tracks into playlists. You can also “tag” your music, so if you’re looking for certain genres, like rock, jazz, or classical music, you can quickly and easily navigate through the appropriate tunes. Labels are limited only by your imagination; some people label their music by concepts like emotion, color, or location.

A problem with so many Mp3s can be that they play at different volumes because they come from many different sources, causing you to continually change the volume while listening to your songs; for this, online tools like MP3Gain.net will help normalize (make the same volume) your music collection.

Put MP3 in your player

If you’re looking for new MP3s, there are plenty of sites to help you find your next favorite song; the classic MP3.com has reviews and options for you to buy; the new site Seeqpod.com is a great tool for searching, downloading and listening to MP3s on the web. Last.fm is also a great place to find new music you like by typing in your favorite artists and exploring songs you think are similar.

You can also convert your old records and CDs to MP3 so you can listen to them on the go. There are several tools available for this, including the fully online resource at Media-Convert.

MP3 Player Accessories

It’s worth upgrading your headphones when you buy an MP3 player; the ones that come with most players are of poor quality. Batteries are also worth purchasing or considering when selecting your MP3 player; some manage a woeful 8 hours but with plenty of capacity, while others can last 20+ hours; perfect for travelers.

Companies have started to come up with ideas for using MP3 players other than a traditional player; MP3 players are now showing up in washing machines and guitar-shaped toys to help shape their air-guitar fantasies, as well as greater integration with mobile phones and personal organizers like the iPhone.

Have mp3s changed the way we listen to music?

Now, as music consumers, we have more access to different music than ever before; almost anyone can make music and upload it for the world to hear. As such, we get exposure to a lot more new music these days if we want it; Before the Internet and Mp3s, the only way this would have been through radio. Listening habits have changed; now fewer people listen to the albums in sequence; there are “shuffle” playlists that scan your entire music library and there are “tags” for your tunes that help play all the tracks in your collection that have a particular style.

As such, the focus of selling tunes has moved more towards buying individual tracks rather than buying albums. Even the process of buying albums has changed; CD stores across the country are closing as more and more people buy their music online. iTunes passed its 3 billionth download in the summer of 2007 and the download rate is increasing.

More people these days listen to lower quality music; the music industry peaked with the advent of CDs reaching the limit of human perception; CDs essentially cannot be upgraded. Paradoxically, the growth area for music formats now are those that are actually inferior to the formats of the past; although only hi-fi fans with expensive equipment may be the only ones able to tell the difference between a high-bitrate MP3 and a CD track.

The future?

Right now, mp3 players are moving to flash drives instead of hard drives to store their information, promising smaller, faster, quieter operation for future mp3 players. Looking ahead, MP3 players may eventually merge and integrate more with all media for one device to play your music, your video, be a digital camera, and allow you to browse the Internet on the go. The quality of the music should increase until it approaches that of CDs. Voice recognition software should make it easy to interface with your music, with Bluetooth features meaning you’ll be able to interact with your PC and other users quickly; there is talk of the emergence of a peer-to-peer network using only the players themselves connected wirelessly. Batteries may become a thing of the past as power consumption declines and solar power is all it takes to keep you playing music all the time.

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