MP3's are cd quality audio files in a relatively small package.  The general rule is one Megabyte per minute of song.  This is small compared to a wav file of the same quality (10 megs per min.)  All you need to hear and create mp3's are a few small programs that can be found at:

You can also create and share MP3's at Napster!  Napster is a small program that will ask you to share out a folder of  your choice containing MP3's.  Then, when on line, you can search and browse for MP3's that you want while sharing what you already have.  It's cool and Its' free!

  If you still have no idea what I'm talking about, read below.

MPEG layer 3 is an audio format that produces highly compressed files while sacrificing very little audio quality - the perceived frequency response and signal-to-noise ratio are retained. Essentially, MP3 works by removing inaudible information. Compression ratios of up to 12:1 (for stereo files) can be achieved with very little degradation.  .

The compression ratio by itself makes the MP3 format ideal for Usenet posting, where disk space and transfer time are precious commodities. The smaller file size also means that posts will be less likely to be dropped: a 9-part file is more likely to come through whole than a 33-part file. As a side note to those posting files, it is recommend posts be limited to 8250 lines (about 500k) as these files travel via usenet more reliably than the maximum 15000 lines

An added bonus of MP3 is that it can be broken up into pieces, and each piece is still playable. Do you want to sample only the beginning of a multipart post? Download and UUdecode only the first few parts. The feature that makes this possible (headerless file format) also means that MP3 files can be made to stream across the net real-time (assuming the playback bitrate and speed of the Internet connection are compatible).

The main disadvantages of layer 3 compression are that lots of processor power is required to encode and play files, a sound-card is required (16-bit sound card recommended for PCs), and the player, encoder and decoder software is not yet in widespread use. The last point is undergoing change as multimedia companies like Macromedia (Shockwave), Telos (Audioactive), and museArc are incorporating layer 3 into their audio products. The sleeping giant, Microsoft, has recently awakened to the possibilities of streaming compression/decompression algorithms (codecs), including layer 3. Their ActiveX Streaming Format (ASF) is a codec-independent standard for delivering multimedia data over the Internet. The professional sound editing program Sound Forge has support for ASF, and special transport functions for dealing with MP3.