What is mp3? Everything you need to know about the format

You've certainly come across the term "mp3" lately. mp3 is an audio format in which music is stored. The format has already existed for several years and is also currently used by default for music.

What is mp3? An explanation

The mp3 format has existed since the mid-90s. To this day, it is used to store music and can be played on all smartphones and other playback devices.

1. The abbreviation mp3 stands for "MPEG-a Audio Layer 3" and actually belongs in the higher-level format MPEG.
2. mp3 itself is only an audio encoding. This means that the actual music file was first compressed to then be stored in this format.
3. How much an mp3 file is compressed, determines the quality of the music in the end.
4. The compression is specified in kbit/s and ranges from zero to 320 kbit/s.
5. The higher the compression rate, the better the music sounds within the mp3 file.

So funktioniert die Kompression

1. Bei der Kompression von Musik werden erstaunlicherweise keine Daten zusammengeführt, sondern einfach nur unhörbare Töne gelöscht.
2. Das betrifft ausschließlich die Töne, die vom menschlichen Ohr durch Überlagerung nicht wahrgenommen werden können.
3. Je niedriger die Kompressionsrate, desto mehr Töne werden entfernt.