MP3

Also known as Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3, MPEG Audio Layer 3, MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, MPEG-2 Audio Layer 3, .mp3, MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer III, MP3 File

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.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

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

Wikidata facts

Show 9 more facts

file extension: mp3
Commons category: MP3
media type: audio/mp3
Stack Exchange tag: sound.stackexchange.com/tags/mp3
publication date: 1993-08-00
described at URL: raw.githubusercontent.com/wader/fq/master/format/matroska/matroska.go
public domain date: 2012-12-00
file format identification pattern: 494433
exact match: rs.tdwg.org/format/values/m016

Sources (11)

via Wikidata · CC0

~46 min read

Article

23 sections

Contents

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

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).