What’s bitrate? And why’s it important for music?
GIMME SOME KBPS UP IN HERE
How does bitrate impact music?
Here things get a little bit more complicated.
You’re most likely to see bitrate attached to lossy files, like MP3, OGG Vorbis, or AAC. We go into depth aboutwhat lossy and lossless files are here, but the key thing is that lossy files are compressed in a way where certain information is lost. On the other hand, Lossless files (like FLAC or WAV) retain all the audio information.
This is why lossless files are described with bothsampling rateandbit depth, while lossy ones aren’t. But we don’t need to worry about that too much.
Now, bitrate can be attached toanymusicfile, but as we mentioned earlier, it’s used more often for lossy files like MP3s. Taking this format as an example, the highest possibly bitrate is 320 kilobits per second.
But if we take a format likethe humble CD? That has a bitrate of 1,411 kilobits per second, effectively 4.5 times the quality of the highest MP3.
There is a direct relationship betweeen bitrate and music quality — but it’s a little bit more complex than that.
We mentioned that MP3s are lossy files, meaning they’ve been compressed in a way that means certain bits of audio have been lost. But this is done in an intelligent way, taking advantage ofpsychoacoustic principles like astemporalandsimultaneous masking.
In reality this means that although something like an MP3 has a far lower bitrate than a lossless file, it doesn’tsound that way.For example, using the image above, a 320kbps MP3 doesn’t sound 4.5 times worse than a CD track.
This image does a good job of summing up the impact bitrate has on recorded music:
Story byCallum Booth
Callum Booth is a freelance journalist with over a decade of experience. Previously, he was the Managing Editor of TNW, where his reporting(show all)Callum Booth is a freelance journalist with over a decade of experience. Previously, he was the Managing Editor of TNW, where his reporting was cited widely, including in VICE, the FT, and the BBC.
Callum’s writing has appeared in The Verge, The Daily Telegraph, Time Out, and many more. He covers the full spectrum of technology, with a particular focus on how it shapes our daily lives. And a lot of regulation stuff too.
Outside of work, Callum’s an avid bookworm, a Fisherman’s Friends addict, and resolutely unshaven. Follow him on Twitter @CallumBooth or visit www.callumbooth.net.
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