# Why did "mp3" become the name of digital music, rather than something friendly? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 26, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170 "2008-02-26T01:28:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/1 "2008-02-26T01:28:03Z")
Mp3’s have, for all intents and purposes, become the next popular medium for music, replacing CD’s. But when you actually think about the name “mp3,” it’s kind of funny that we’re still using such a technical, official code word in common usage rather than something more informal and more friendly and marketable. I mean, CD’s eventually became “Compact Discs” or “CeeDees,” not “PCM Audio at 44.1Khz.” Advertising circulars for Best Buy don’t call DVD’s “DIVX Mpeg layer 4 on Digital Versatile Disc,” they’re just “DeeVeeDees.” Why are Mp3’s different? It’s weird to me that someone didn’t just start calling them “bloopoids” or something in order to market Ipods and other players. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/2 "2008-02-26T01:35:25Z")
Em-Pee-Three Dee-Vee-Dee See-Dee Ell-Pee All four seem to have about the same level of “friendliness” to me … . :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/3 "2008-02-26T01:36:09Z")
Well, for one it’s already as short as DVD Dee(1)Vee(2)Dee(3) Em(1)Pee(2)three(3) And two, to show you the technical term and why it’s EXACTLY like CD or DvD. You see iTunes advertise them as mp3s not “Mpeg-1 Audio Layer 3s MIME Type: mpeg/audio Magic: IDE”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/4 "2008-02-26T01:38:34Z")
Probably because mp3 takes a lot less time to say than “PCM Audio at 44.1Khz.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/5 "2008-02-26T01:42:31Z")
It isn’t exactly a mouthful. At 3 syllables/characters, it’s more similar to “DVD” than it is to either of your examples. ETA: Damn, I gotta stop doing so much pondering before posting. What they said. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/6 "2008-02-26T03:45:05Z")
I’m no expert, but it seems like the mp3 format wasn’t marketed to the direct public. It was popularized through Winamp and other audio players; it wasn’t sold to the general public in the way that, oh say, Blu-Ray has been. Besides, .mp3 is the file extension. People used to talk about Word documents and spreadsheets as .doc and .xls as well. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/7 "2008-02-26T06:52:18Z")
…because the proper technical name would be: Motion Picture Experts Group, Layer 3. MP3 just has some nice alliteration going on. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/8 "2008-02-26T10:36:16Z")
[Mup3?](http://youtube.com/watch?v=cBK-06C-mpQ) I think the common term for music bought digitally is ‘downloads’ - there’s a ‘download chart’ - this presumably includes some MP3s, although I think other DRM’ed formats are more common. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/9 "2008-02-26T10:48:55Z")
I vote for calling them songs. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/10 "2008-02-26T11:37:58Z")
Short version: MP3 was the first file format to become popular that combined both small file size and relative retention of quality, and was always called by name to distinguish it from other formats. When music began to be traded online, MP3 compression made songs a heck of a lot smaller than the .WAV format without losing too much in the way of quality (debate this somewhere else if you take issue with it; it’s true enough for the purpose of this post). This was especially important in the days of both smaller hard drives and slower internet connections and in my recollection lead to a massive increase in the number of people trading music files online. As music collections in MP3 format grew, so did demand for devices that would make the music more portable. The first digital music players were released, and boasting that they could play MP3s meant people knew they could use them with their existing music collections rather than needing to convert to new or esoteric file formats. They’ve continued to be called MP3s to distinguish them from other digital music formats and from CDs. Now, if there was a generic name for a device to play MP3s on, I’d make an argument that iPod is on it’s way to being the default term for any portable music device simply based on the number of customers I’ve dealt with who use the term iPod to refer to all MP3 players and not specifically the devices made by Apple. There seems to be a lack of awareness in some circles that, while all iPods are MP3 players, not all MP3 players are iPods. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/11 "2008-02-26T14:56:56Z")
I’d say it’s because MP3 is still the most common and most supported format used. I’d say that up until the iTMS really took off, most of the music either sold or traded on the Internet was encoded in MP3. The iTMS, of course, uses MP4, with or without a DRM wrapper. Microsoft has been pushing WMA for a decade now but it’s never caught on as widely and the stores that used the PlaysForSure DRM still aren’t as popular as the iTMS. Several other companies have sold straight MP3s (which don’t have any DRM capability) for years, with Amazon being the first big store. (Nothing against eMusic, but the selection of more popular music isn’t anywhere near as large.) There are a lot of digital audio formats out there. You’ve got lossless compression (FLAC for instance.) There are several lossy formats (including MP3 and WMA) some of which truly are free (OGG). There are several that have their own extension but are nothing but a different type of DRM wrapping (Audible’s AA.) There are some with big corporate backing that never got off the ground (ATRAC). But MP3 is supported by every device in the market and is still the best choice for most people when ripping their own collection due to small size (though that doesn’t matter nearly as much these days), reasonable sound quality, and universality of support. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/12 "2008-02-26T15:07:37Z")
[QUOTE=GameHat] MP3 just has some nice alliteration going on. [/QUOTE] :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/13 "2008-02-26T15:30:11Z")
[QUOTE=TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW] Mp3’s have, for all intents and purposes, become the next popular medium for music, replacing CD’s. [/QUOTE] I disagree. Many CD player manufacturers have included the ability to play .mp3 files burned on a disc. So my entire KRS-ONE discography I have converted to .mp3 will fit on ONE disc, can be taken _off_ my computer and played in my car stereo or home stereo system. It would be closer to say .mp3 has taken over .wav, but even that is wrong as virtually ALL digitally recorded music is done to .wav files. As far as the actual question, “em pee three” is easy and catchy and was the first widely used compression format so it got the title. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/14 "2008-02-26T16:42:15Z")
[QUOTE=TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW] But when you actually think about the name “mp3,” it’s kind of funny that we’re still using such a technical, official code word in common usage [/QUOTE] You mean like AM and FM (radio)? ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/15 "2008-02-26T16:44:25Z")
Funny post from the guy with the moniker TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Jinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Captain\_Jinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Jinks)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/16 "2008-02-26T17:23:49Z")
People refer to other file formats by the extension. Some examples… –PDF (I think more common, even, than “Adobe File” –JPG (JPEG) –GIF –CSV –TXT (“Text file”) …and some are not. I suspect “excel file” is more euphonious than “dot-xls”. I note that the last 4 are interchange formats. S’pose that encourages the practice? ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/17 "2008-02-26T18:41:36Z")
i dont get why you think mp3 is any differnt then any other tech lingo. DVD = digital video disc WWW = ~ world wide web jpeg pdf mpeg avi people use extensions and shorthand of many tech lingo mp3s are no different. and mp3s and mp3 players are replacing cds. “omgerz my car cd player plays teh mp3 cdz!” well so does mine but CDs are on there way out for music regardless of if they play mp3s or not. ---
**Author:** ![Praetor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@Praetor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Praetor)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/18 "2008-02-26T20:26:16Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] Funny post from the guy with the moniker TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW. [/QUOTE] I also came in here solely to point out the irony. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/19 "2008-02-27T01:45:15Z")
Yeah, but there’s a difference. I think that most people would know what the letters CD or LP actually stand for. (Possibly some young’uns don’t know LP, but way back when they were current technology, everyone knew) What percentage of people know the derivation of MP3, without looking it up? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170/20 "2008-02-27T01:53:23Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] Yeah, but there’s a difference. I think that most people would know what the letters CD or LP actually stand for. (Possibly some young’uns don’t know LP, but way back when they were current technology, everyone knew) What percentage of people know the derivation of MP3, without looking it up? [/QUOTE] Again, how is this different from AM or FM? Or VHS? MRI? ISBN? C3PO? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-mp3-become-the-name-of-digital-music-rather-than-something-friendly/439170.md?page=2)