Lots of
people know the MP3 file format. This file format is known for its small size
and it’s very reasonable quality.
MP3 offers a lot of extra features. One of those features is called
ID3-tagging.
ID3 tagging is a very useful feature which enables you to enter additional
information besides to file name.
The information you may enter consists of the following data:
- Title (this is usually the title of
the song)
- Artist (the artist of the song)
- Album (the album on which the song
appears)
- Year (the year in which the song is
published or recorded)
- Track (the track number of the CD from
which the song is ripped)
- Genre (the genre of the song, for
example: pop, rock, house etc.)
- Comments (gives you the opportunity
the leave a comment on the song)
- Album Artist (the artist of the album)
- Composer (the composer of the song)
- Disc Number (the number of the disc, mostly used on dual albums)
Here is a cool music blog.
The tags
make it easy to identify your MP3 if you’re searching on your computer or a
device which is designed for playing MP3.
But this technique is also available on the M4a file format.
So which file format is the best? They
both offer the same except for one thing.
The compression/quality ratio is better with the M4a file. This means that a
song of 3MB sounds better in M4a format than MP3.
Both files can be played on any device.
The
conclusion is that if you have a choice go for M4a. M4a is also used by YouTube
in their videos.
Download music from YouTube
My advice
to you was to use M4a instead of MP3. M4a is the file format which is used in
the YouTube video clips. The M4a format is used in videos with a resolution of
480p or higher. Below 480p YouTube uses the MP3 file format.
But today, almost any video on YouTube offers a resolution of 480p or higher.
It’s very rare to find a video below 480p.
The sound quality of the YouTube video clips is surprisingly good. It is definitely
worth the effort to connect your PC to your hifi set and listen to the YouTube
music videos.
That’s of
course a great solution for listening to YouTube music, but there is a far more
convenient solution. What if you could download the music file (MP3 or M4a)
straight from the video? That would be great wouldn’t it?
There is a
great piece of software available to complete the task of downloading MP3 or
M4a from YouTube. The software is called music from YouTube. You can click on the link to download the
software and start downloading the music from YouTube.
This software is really convenient to use and the quality of the downloaded
songs is impressive. This software is a must have for any music lover. The
choice on YouTube regarding music is endless.
I think the trial version gives you 10 or so songs for free so you can see for
yourself whether you like the software or don’t.
MP3 Music
Many people
today listen to music on MP3. MP3 got popular because of its small size and
high quality. The quality of MP3 comes in different rates. These rates are
called bitrates. A higher number means better quality. The quality of the
recorded music plays a main role of course. A bad recording will never become
good, no matter how high the bit rate is.
The music on MP3 started to get big in the early nineties. In the nineties people still used CDs, but
MP3 was arriving and lots of young people started to use MP3 portable players
in the late nineties.
The kids in the nineties used Discmans to be able to listen to music anywhere.
The Discman was hot and the Walkman was old fashioned. When the portable MP3
player arrived, it was like a miracle. A device so much smaller than a Discman
and was able to store many more songs.
Today people still use a portable MP3 player to play their music. However,
today’s player can often play more than just MP3. They can play WAV, AAC, M4A
and lots of more formats.
Digital Music
Until recently I
used to listen to CDS. The sound quality is pretty good, but there is one big
disadvantage.
The biggest disadvantage is that you’re unable to listen to your music
collection without changing a CD. What if you want to listen to 10 songs of
some artist and they are all on a different album. And this particular artist
averages about one good song per CD. So you have to stop the music and walk to
the CD player, change the CD and start playing again after every song!
I don’t understand why they still produce CDs and even vinyl records. It is
just not right.
Digital music on your hard drive is far better than 10 to 15 songs on a single
album. Connect your hard drive to your digital media player which is connected
to your stereo and you will be able to listen to all the music you own. Nothing
can beat that. And the same arguments apply for movies. Well not entirely,
because if you watch a movie on a DVD you can insert the movie once and watch
the whole movie. You don’t have to change the DVD after every scene. But if you’re
listening and watching music DVDs than the same arguments as with the CDs
count. But still it is a lot easier to have your movies on a hard drive
together with your music. You can watch or listen to all the music and movies
in your collection and never have to exchange a disc.