Do MP3s degrade over time?

AndreTheGiant · 2010-03-04T08:48:11

I know this is crazy but my MP3s seem to be getting lower quality as time goes on. Some of them have faint snaps and cracks and blips and parts where the volume seems to go up and down ever so slightly. Others are sounding muffled as if they were recorded from a recording sort of thing. It seems every couple of weeks I notice that another one of my MP3s has a new 'artifact' that I could have sworn wasnt there before. The older they are, the worse they are (some of my MP3s are probably 10 years old!) This has been going on very gradually (for years?) and I just finally got fed up enough to ask about it. I know computer files dont work like that, but what is going on? Anyone else experience this?

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Started by AndreTheGiant March 01, 2010 07:22 PM

40 comments, last by Oberon_Command 14 years, 8 months ago

JackOfAllTrades

109

March 04, 2010 03:50 AM

Quote: Original post by AndreTheGiant
Wow I cant believe that about 95% of you actually took the time to post stupid (sometimes elaborate) nonesense thinking it was funny. Also I have no idea why I would have gotten rated down for posting this question...

I had fun reading every single one of them ROFL!

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Binomine

611

March 04, 2010 05:02 AM

As a side note, I had one of those CD-based MP3 players. It was very poor quality, but it lasted a long time and it worked well enough for what I wanted. When it broke, I ended up buying an IPoD, and several of the same MP3's badly skipped. I figure since the CD based system could skip, it compensated for skipping, while the IPoD just played the MP3 as it was.

So yes, I did actually have MP3's degrade on me.