The result in real terms is layer 3 shrinks the original sound data from a CD (with a bit rate of 1411.2 kilobits per one second of stereo music) by a factor of 12 (down to 112-128kbps) without sacrificing sound quality.

Because MP3 files are small, they can easily be transferred across the Internet.

MP3 Resources 
Provides numerous resources related to MPEG Audio Layer 3.

MP3.com 
Resource site for news and information about MP3. Includes a question and answer section, information about hardware and software, and links to related sites.

32-bit MP3 Players
Collection of reviewed, rated and downloadable MP3 players from Stroud's CWSApps.

MP3 Articles
Collection of ongoing articles about MP3 from Wired News.

MP3now.com
Contains links to the top MP3 search engines and charts, software, hardware, downloads, and overview information.

The Digital Media Association
The Digital Media Association includes other Web-media technology and retail companies, such as a2b music, broadcast.com, CDnow, Enso Audio Imaging, Liquid Audio, RealNetworks, and TCI Music.

Yahoo!'s MP3 page
Yahoo!'s directory of MP3.