An MP3 player is a digital storage device which is designed to store and reproduce music files which have been created using MP3 compression. Put simply, an MP3 music file is audio stored in a special type of file, created using a special technique which lessens the amount of storage space needed to store the file.The MP3 player has all of the controls that you would expect on a CD player, such as PLAY, PAUSE, STOP, PREVIOUS TRACK and NEXT TRACK. Although the different manufacturers may use a slightly different system, all MP3 players feature these standard controls.
An MP3 player will usually have a standard headphone socket (3.5mm stereo jack), the same as you would find on a portable radio or similar device, meaning you can use standard headphones on any MP3 player. You may find some players have other additional sockets, such as "line in" which is used for recording from an external source.
Most devices feature an LCD display of varying sizes, this allows you to see which track is playing, and also to navigate through the stored music files to find the track you want to listen to. The amount of information displayed will depend on the size of the display.
The amount of music you can store will depend on the storage capacity of the MP3 player, the capacity is usually stated in MB (Megabytes) or GB (Gigabytes). The way in which the storage capacity translates into the amount of songs that you can actually store is described further down the page.
