The AudioFile: Understanding MP3 compression
 

Since its standardization in 1991, MP3 has gone from being a little-known portion of a video file format to the kind of ubiquity that most brands can only dream of having. It's both widespread, with small players flying off the shelves, and controversial, dropping from the lips of politicians and advocates for all sides of the intellectual property debate.

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paed...ompression.ars