Are Mp3 players changing the Music?

Anyone of us who has been a passionate music lover and has experienced different kinds of music formats can distinguish between the quality and change in music easily . Particularly a music listener experiencing mp3 music can feel the difference not as compared to CD music quality but also between different mp3 files of same source of data. Yes it is possible to create more than one mp3 files with different sound quality and different size from the single music data. And this magic is done by a setting a single feature with different values, this feature is the bit rate. Bit rate refers to the number of bits per second encoded in an mp3 music file. Its value can fluctuate between 96 kilobytes per second (Kbps) to 320 kilobytes per second (Kbps). You can set your desired bit rate for the different mp3 music quality.

But remember that lower the bit rate will lower the quality of sound and higher the bit rate, better the quality of sound. Now it’s up to you what standard of music quality you want to enjoy. Normally the bit rate of 128 Kilo bytes per second is recommended for having the sound quality just equivalent to radio sound quality. While several music websites and blogs recommend setting the bit rate at 160 Kilobytes per second so the listener can enjoy the same music quality which is available on CDs.

In this way mp3 players are really changing the way people listen music. Various options provided to manipulate music file’s quality and size has really been producing music of different kind from a single source of music data. MP3 compression system creates files which have not the exact sound quality as the original one has. Because during encoding and compressing process, the size

of actual file decreases due to which some audio information gets lost. The amount of such lost can be controlled through the bit rate. You lower the bit rate, more audio information you lose.

Therefore, critics often blame mp3 format to affect the music quality in a way which is not good. They claim that even at highest bit rate that is 320 kilobytes per second an mp3 file does not provide the same sound quality a CD can provide. They further argue that mp3 creates a flattened music with no dynamics involved in pitch and volume of music data, due to which much of new music creating through mp3 format has same sound effect without much difference between pitch and volume.