As of Fedora Core 6 the mp3 format is no
longer supported out of the box. Relax!
You still have two choices.
1. You can convert your mp3's to ogg's.
2. You can hack mp3 support into Fedora Core's.
I have been listening to mp3's on Fedora Core
from versions 6 up to 10. With no problems.
To add mp3 support into Fedora Core you can go to
http://rpm.livna.org/fedora
You need to install the following package:
xmms-mp3
Keep in mind that this is not entirely legal.
If you would like to remain legal you can get
the GStreamer mp3 plugin from Fluendo.
http://www.fluendo.com/resources/fluendo_mp3.php
For more information you can go to The Fedora WIKI
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mutimedia/fluendo_mp3
Once you have completed one of these steps you can
once again play mp3's on your Fedora > 6 machine.
This is all because the mp3 format itself is now
considered a proprietary format. The original writer
of this format is now asking for royalties.
Fedora is the only distro to remove mp3 support so
far as I know.
This doesn't seem to be an issue in the UNIX world
as FreeBSD has so far NOT dropped support for the
mp3 format.