
128kbps was preferred in the early days of the MP3 format because it was compatible with most MP3 playback devices like iPods. If file size is a big consideration - as it was when the MP3 became popular - you can get away with as low as 128kbps before sound degradation becomes noticeable.

At 320kbps, most people will find it impossible to tell the difference between an MP3 and a CD. The difference between these two is huge - at 8kbps, your music will sound a little better than an AM radio with poor reception.

The bitrate, on the other hand, can be set anywhere from 8kbps to 320kbps. Most MP3s are created with a 44.1 kHz sample rate - especially when converting from CD because it’s the same sample rate used for creating CD audio. When creating an MP3 from a source, whether it’s CD or even vinyl, you choose a bitrate and a sample rate - these two values will determine how big your MP3 will be in terms of file size, but more importantly, how good it will sound when compared to the source you’re using. No, and the differences can be noticeable. The same is true for MP3 files: Though they only take up about a 10th of the storage size as a CD audio track, most folks find them to be an acceptable listening experience. It’s a process known as “lossy compression.” It’s the same trick used by JPEG files to shrink the size of photos without affecting the key details that make it look as good as the original. MP3s do this using a psychological trick - they start by taking an original, uncompressed digital audio file (like a track on a CD), and then they selectively remove chunks of data in a way that the human ear is unlikely to notice. It was developed to give us a way to store audio information in digital form, but with a smaller file size than the format used by CDs at the time. MP3 is a short form for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3. What is an MP3?īefore we can tackle the differences between MP3 and MP4, let’s do a quick recap of an MP3 file and its uses.
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Is an MP4 file better than an MP3? Should you stop using MP3s? And what exactly are the differences anyway? All excellent questions, which we will strive to answer using as little geek-speak as possible. But even though the increase from 3 to 4 in the name suggests that an MP4 is simply the next generation of MP3, there’s more to it than that. In that time, it has been surpassed by other file formats, one of which is MP4. Although it isn’t the only file format, the term MP3 has become synonymous with digital music in the same way that Google has with a web search - not surprising, given that the file format is now more than 20 years old.

As sound has continued to evolve, so have digital file formats. Sound is one of the many motivators of our day, whether it’s that song that powers you through an extra rep at the gym or that podcast you like to unwind to after a long day at work.
