An MP3 is a file type popularly used for digital music and audio files. An abbreviation for "Mpeg-1 audio layer 3," it was developed by the Moving Pictures Expert Group in the late 1980s to reduce the large file size of raw audio to a more manageable compressed form. Raw audio files are uncompressed, meaning they contain large amounts of data to retain high sound quality, and are used on commercially produced compact discs. When discs are imported into a computer with music software as is, the raw files are converted into large and quality comparable .WAV files. Music software allows the option of importing them in a number of more file size friendly compressed formats, including MP3.
All modern CD players are capable of playing burned audio discs with files in .WAV or .MP3 form, but won't recognize other formats such as .AAC, .WMA and other proprietary forms used by some software. Although .WAV files are not compressed and result in higher listening quality, MP3s offer good listening quality and allow more music to fit on a disc than .WAV files because of their smaller size. MP3s process and burn faster because of this, and are consequently easier to manage and take up less space on your hard drive.
All music burning software functions differently, so you will need to consult the online help or physical owner's manual if provided. Preparing your MP3s for disc burning requires choosing the songs you would like to burn and placing them in a play list, burn list or other queue. Some programs allow you to adjust overall volume levels so that one song will not be louder than another on the CD, rearrange the order of songs and other available options included in some software.
When your songs are ready to go in the burn queue, burning them to CD is as simple as inserting a blank disc, hitting the "Burn CD" button and waiting for the process to complete. If you've followed the instructions, your new MP3 CD will be ready for playing.