MP3's were invented in 1991, The MPEG layer 3 (Motion Picture Experts Group) file type is commonly known as an mp3. It remarked itself in less than ten months as the best performing sound format on the internet. The sound is crystal clear, downloading an mp3 file is fast, and the products available in this format is massively overwhelming.

In 1991 there was a competition between Shock-Wave and Real Audio which was created by Macro media. MPEG layer 3 is a form of audio compression that was finally released to the public after fifteen years of intense acoustic research.

MP3 can compress an audio file up to fifteen times the original size and still sound crystal clear. The MPEG layer 3 file being so small, still has all the audio details from the original song, but it removes the audio sounds that the human ear cannot detect, that is why compression is possible.

The engineers from the Fraunhoffer institute, a pioneer company who specializes in MP3 technology states that this system of file compression explores the properties of the human ear, while keeping the original sound quality even though its been compressed many times. One huge advantage that the MPEG layer 3 file has is the small amount of storage space it takes.

Five minuets of audio can take up up to forty megabytes on a compact disc, but if you were to compress it to the MPEG layer 3 format it would take only about five megabytes of your hard drive space. Foe millions of people the MPEG layer 3 format is a dream come true, for others it is their worst nightmare.

The ones who don't approve of the format are recording companies who deal with millions of dollars of loss because of this file format. It is very easy to create and distribute MP3 files. But it doesn't mean you have the right to do that, because most of the mp3 file formats are copies of copyrighted music.