Source format
MP3
MPEG-1 Audio Layer III
The audio format that changed music: a four-minute song weighs a few megabytes. Any player, car stereo or phone built in the last twenty years plays it.
- Best for
- Music, podcasts, ringtones, maximum compatibility.
- Limits
- At low bitrates you can hear artefacts; newer codecs sound better at the same size.
- Compression
- lossy
- Typical bitrate
- 128-320 kbps
- Compatibility
- universal
- Extensions
- .mp3
- Since
- 1993