MP3 was an okay format when our hard-drives could hold less than 300-Gigabytes.
Additionally, clients are usually fine with mp3s if that is the medium with which they release their music. The logic follows. However, if you are creating a CD Master for duplication with mp3 files where is the logic in that?
Fatvonfree made an excellent point about listening to compressed audio information. Anything short of physical replication will result in a decrease of quality. That is why vinyl records are still both produced and popular.
Sidenote: I do not want to get into that fucking conversation about 196kHz 24bit. No one cares about 196kHz.
The concept is, qualitatively, when you listen primarily on mp3 format your mixes are going to sound like mp3s.
Quantitatively, an mp3 is 1/10th the information of Red-book format audio.
I am not saying that your mixes are terrible, that is an aesthetic decision (…most of the time). Rather I submit, if you are working as an audio engineer:
1-Be aware of how music is digitally converted
2-Know the different audio formats and where they will deliver the best representation of the song
3-Buy Vinyl
