First thing is you have to have some mp3′s, however one may go about this (legally or illegally). You can use sites like Napster or Rhapsody, but if your into Independent music eMusic has a good deal. You can rip your own MP3′s from your CD collection. You can hit the torrents or P2P programs like FrostWire.

There are a lot of things you can do to get the fullest out of your mp3 collection.

When dealing with mp3′s it is always handy to have lame installed in linux. In Debian install from terminal:

sudo apt-get install lame

If you are space minded, and prefer all your mp3′s to be under a specific bit compression the tool Sound Converter will allow you to adjust the compression of several files at one time. You have to have the gstreamer lame plugin installed to work with MP3′s. In Debian I install it thusly:

sudo apt-get install soundconverter gstreamer10-lame

This is what my preferences look like in SoundConverter

Easytag is a robust utility which allows you to edit the ID3 tags on your MP3s. The interface takes getting some used to, but once you have the hang of it. You can change the tags based on the file names or change the tags based on file names in one sweep.

Audacity is a heavy duty audio editor for Linux. When I have an MP3 that cuts of at the end of the song abruptly, or has a lot of live crowed in the beginning or end, I use this file to cut out the crowed or to fade out the end. I also use this file to change the bit compression of a single song.

If I want to rip a CD I just bought into MP3s to add to my collection Grip is a good option with many configurable options. If you want something a little more stripped down and user friendly try Sound Juicer. Be sure to have lame installed before using either program.

To convert your MP3s into a custom mix desk you can install Brasaro, a GNOME based CD/DVD burning application. You can also choose Gnomebacker which I do not think is still maintained, but still a solid tool. There is xfburn, but only the latest version has audio capability and is not available for Debian Lenny. For KDE users, K3B is an excellent choice.

Now there are a few options for playing your MP3 files. If you remember the old days of WinAMP then you will like the design of Audacious. Now if you want a more iTunes like player which catalogs your collection you have many choices. If you are a KDE man Amarok is what your looking for. For GNOME or XFCE users there are a number of choices such as Rythmbox, Banshee, and my favorite Exaile (LinDesk has a good overview of Linux MP3 players).

Enjoy your MP3s!