I have a program that puts music and photo's on a cd-r. but, the only music format it takes is mp3. some music i want to use is off of store bought cd's (not sure which format they use) i need to change that cd to mp3 without burning it, i just need the mp3 to sit in my music file.

These are the instructions from Nero. I'm not sure what you're using but they would be similar.

If you want to save audio tracks from audio CDs onto the hard disk select the command Save Track from the Recorder menu.
A dialog box will open with a list of all drives.

Select the drive which contains the audio CD and click on OK.
Depending on the option selected (File menu > Settings command > Database tab) the database dialog will appear. If it is closed or not activated you will see a dialog box with a list of all tracks at the top.

Now select all of the audio tracks which you would like to save.
Decide on the output format by clicking on the drop down button in the "output file format" field and select the desired format. IN THIS CASE MP3
Note: There are various settings for file formats which you can change if necessary. If you want to see or change the current settings for the selected format click on the Settings button.

Change the file path for the files by clicking on the '...' button and selecting the desired directory.
Click on the Start button to begin saving. A status bar shows how much has been saved already. When saving ends the box is closed.
Click on the Close button if you do not wish to save any more tracks.

You can use many files, But one I found to work for me can be found here