An MP3 is a lossy file. What that means is quite a lot of the music's content has been removed in an effort to make the file smaller.
Smaller file sizes mattered at a time when the information industry was moving faster than our ability to store and deliver content. We were willing to suffer the sonic losses for the opportunity to have music available when we were away from our stereo systems.
I remember with great fondness the original Apple iPod. The notion of a portable music system that could store and playback one's personal library while hiking or traveling was beyond imagining. Who cares if the only price paid was a bit of quality lost?
Now that technology has caught up with storage and delivery systems there's no need whatsoever for lossy music files.
Yet, the past is difficult to erase.
Spotify recently announced high-resolution streaming—though what I suspect they mean is not lossy.
It takes time to change, but at this point in our history there's no need to accept lossy music files.
