The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA) 1988 grants some exclusive rights to the owner of a copyright work which include the right to copy, issue copies, the right to communicate a work to the public and also the right to make an adaptation of it. Converting and uploading music tracks into mp3 format on a VLE would mean infringing these rights of the copyright owner, unless done with the copyright owner's permission. Also, music files are mostly made available under certain terms and conditions which might restrict copying or adaptation of them. So, if a member of staff wishes to create an MP3 file from a CD and make it available on a VLE, it might be an infringement of the copyright and might breach the licence terms of the CD. The Western Colleges Consortium contains a help and support guidance which reads:
Can I upload mp3 files to the Virtual Campus?
The answer is not that simple and basically it is yes and no!
Yes if you hold the rights to the content of the mp3 file. No if you do not hold the rights to the content of the mp3 file. mp3 is a file format and not illegal in itself.
You can create sound recordings and convert them to mp3 format and upload those to the Virtual Campus without any issues whatsoever. These may be recordings of your lectures, of you talking. The controversy over mp3 is when it is used to compress copyrighted music tracks and then distribute them over the internet.
You can record your voice and convert into mp3 format and upload that to the Virtual Campus. You can not convert a music track from a copyrighted compact disc into mp3 format and then upload that to the Virtual Campus.
You can not upload an mp3 file to the Virtual Campus unless the copyright owner has specifically given you permission to distribute the file (and this applies to everything on the internet). We are not just talking about uploading mp3 files found on the internet, just because you have purchased the CD does not mean that you have purchased the rights to distribute or broadcast the CD, you generally have only purchased the right to listen to the music in your home. Therefore you could not play the CD in a classroom environment. You also need to check that if a copyright owner has given you permission that it is permission for the use in an educational context and not for personal use only.
An exception thus is where a member of staff is the content owner of the mp3. If not, the short answer is that you might need either permission from the copyright owner to create and distribute the mp3 files on a VLE or obtain it through a licence.