Knowledgebase - FAQ - CD Questions
Music CD Audio (Yellow Book) vs. MP3
There are two main types of Music CDs: Audio CD & MP3 CD. There is a difference.
A correctly formatted Audio CD conforms to the industry standard referred to as Yellow Book. This is the format of the Audio CDs you purchase at a music store. The files on an Audio CD will be in the WAVe format. This is considered a lossless file format and retains full fidelity.
The Audio CD (Yellow Book) standard was developed to insure interchangeability throughout all computers and stereos. One drawback to this standard is that it did not include provisions for track, artist and genre information. That is why when you put your store bought Audio CD into a computer the computer only lists: track 1, track 2...
There is a way that an Audio CD can be mastered so that the cd includes track, artist, and genre information. This is referred to as: CD-Text. This method allows the person creating the master to enter Audio Tags. These Audio Tags are readable by some computer software programs, like Real Player. It is important to note that not all computer software will be able to read this information. An example is that Windows Media Player version 11 will not read these Audio Tags. So if a user plays an Audio CD with CD-Text information using Windows Media Player 11 they will only see the normal Audio CD information: track 1, track 2... and they will not be able to view the CD-Text information.
The MP3 CD format has some great features. The main benefit that we will mention here is the inclusion of track, artist, and genre information on the actual MP3 CD. So when you play a MP3 CD in a computer the software will display track, artist, and genre information. It should be mentioned that some early stereos and car stereos will not be able to play an MP3 CD. Almost all newer stereos and car stereos can now read the MP3 format. As time passes this problem of interchangeability of MP3 CDs is diminishing.
One final item to mention is the CD Databases that can be accessed over the internet. When playing an Audio CD in a computer that has internet access you can often ask the software, like Real Player and Windows Media Player, to Find or Update the Album Information. The software will then check one of these CD Databases over the internet and supply your software player the album information.