This description covers the history of the MP3 player, starting with its release in 1998. It looks at how the device has evolved over the years, from its early days as a bulky, expensive device to its modern iteration as a sleek, affordable device. It also examines the impact the MP
MP3 is an audio coding format developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners; for example, compared to CD-quality digital audio, MP3 compression can commonly achieve a 75–95% reduction in size, depending on the bit rate. In popular usage, MP3 often refers to files of sound or music recordings stored in the MP3 file format (.mp3) on consumer electronic devices.