MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is an audio coding format developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners; for example, compared to CD-quality digital audio, MP3 compression can commonly achieve a 75–95% reduction in size, depending on the bit rate. In popular usage, MP3 often refers to files of sound or music recordings stored in the MP3
AI overview
MP3 is a compressed audio format developed in Germany that dramatically reduces the file size of digital sound recordings—typically by 75–95% compared to CD-quality audio—while maintaining sound quality that most listeners perceive as faithful to the original. This efficient compression made MP3 files practical for storing and sharing music digitally, which is why the format became widely used for personal music collections and online distribution.
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Key facts
- File format.name
- MP3
- File format.icon
- Mp3.svgclass=skin-invert
- File format.icon_size
- 200px
- File format._noextcode
- on
- File format.extension
- (rarely) (before 1995)
- File format._nomimecode
- on
- File format.owner
- Moving Picture Experts Group
- File format.latest release version
- ISO/IEC 13818-3:1998
- File format.type
- Lossy audio
- File format.contained by
- MPEG-ES
- File format.open
- Yes
- File format.free
- Expired patents
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
23 sectionsContents
- History
- Background
- Development
- Standardization
- Going public
- Internet spreading
- Further versions
- MPEG-2
- MPEG-2.5
- Internet distribution
- Design
- File structure
- Encoding and decoding
- Quality
- Bit rate and sampling rates
- Ancillary data
- Metadata
- {{anchor|Licensing and patent issues}}Licensing, ownership, and legislation
- Alternative technologies
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is an audio coding format developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio, yet still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio to most listeners; for example, compared to CD-quality digital audio, MP3 compression can commonly achieve a 75–95% reduction in size, depending on the bit rate. In popular usage, MP3 often refers to files of sound or music recordings stored in the MP3 file format (.mp3) on consumer electronic devices.
MPEG-1 Audio Layer III was originally defined in 1991 as one of the three possible audio codecs of the MPEG-1 standard (along with MPEG-1 Audio Layer I and MPEG-1 Audio Layer II). All three options were retained and further extended—defining additional bit rates and support for more audio channels (supporting surround sound—in the subsequent MPEG-2 standard).