Now that you know what exactly the type of digital music we're talking about, it's time to find out how to play that music! Sure, you can stick with the Windows Media Player that Microsoft offers bundled with their Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows 2000 products (also downloadable from their web site for free), but it really doesn't have many features to satisfy even the most casual listener. So, I'm going to introduce you to a program that I use for my MP3 listening: Winamp. Ever since I first knew about Winamp back in 1997, it has always been my most favourite MP3 player. Even though there are many other popular MP3 players out there that challenge Winamp's popularity, it is still the most popular MP3 player out there for Windows. Why? Because it is packed full of features, is easy to expand (with plug-ins), easy to modify (with skins) and has the sleekest interface you'll ever find on a Windows MP3 player. Plus, it not only can play MP3's, but it can also handle common Windows multimedia files such as WAV, MIDI and audio CDs.

The newest version of Winamp as of the time of this writing is version 2.62, so that is what I'm going to be going with through the entire article. You can download Winamp 2.62 by clicking here, or you can download the newest version of Winamp by clicking here (if a newer one is available). If you're not sure what to do when downloading, then I suggest you read OnePC's Beginners' Guide to Downloading. Once you're finished downloading, simply run the installation file to install Winamp (basically, you're just going to accept all the default settings and just keep on the "Next" button until you're done). Your computer is now official MP3-ready!

On to: Using the Player