Music File Formats | Company Consultant Services Agency

Music Formats

Music File Formats

• WMA (Lossless) …
• WMA (Lossy) …
• ALAC. …
• MP3. …
• AAC. …
• FLAC. FLAC files are an incredibly popular lossless audio file format. …
• AIFF. AIFF is an uncompressed, PCM based professional audio file format. …
• WAV. WAV files are the go-to uncompressed file of the audio world.

Music File Formats Information

AAC (not hi-res): Apple’s alternative to MP3. Lossy and compressed, but sounds better. Used for iTunes downloads and Apple Music streaming. LOSSY

AIFF (hi-res): Apple’s alternative to WAV, with better metadata support. It is lossless and uncompressed (so big file sizes), but not hugely popular. UNCOMPRESSED

DSD (hi-res): The single-bit format used for Super Audio CDs. It comes in 2.8mHz, 5.6mHz and 11.2mHz varieties, but due to its high-quality codec, it’s (currently) impractical for streaming. UNCOMPRESSED

FLAC (hi-res): This lossless compression format supports hi-res sample rates, takes up about half the space of WAV, and stores metadata. It’s royalty-free and is considered the preferred format for downloading and storing hi-res albums. The downside is, it’s not supported by Apple (so not compatible with iTunes).   LOSSLESS

MP3 (not hi-res): Popular, lossy compressed format ensures small file size, but far from the best sound quality. Convenient for storing music on smartphones and iPods.   LOSSY

MP4 (not hi-res): A file with the .mp4 file extension is an MPEG-4 or MP4 video file format. MP4s are one of the more common video file formats used for downloading and streaming videos from the internet. It’s a highly versatile and compressed video format that also can store audio, subtitles, and still images, and most commonly used to store video and audio. Like most modern container formats, it allows streaming over the Internet. LOSSY

MQA (hi-res): A lossless compression format that packages hi-res files for more efficient streaming. Used for Tidal Masters hi-res streaming.  LOSSLESS

OGG (not hi-res): Sometimes called by its full name, Ogg Vorbis. A lossy, open-source alternative to MP3 and AAC, unrestricted by patents. The file format used (at 320kbps) in Spotify streaming.  LOSSY

WAV (hi-res): The standard format in which all CDs are encoded. Great sound quality but it’s uncompressed, meaning huge file sizes (especially for hi-res files). It has poor metadata support (that is, album artwork, artist and song title information). UNCOMPRESSED

WMA Lossless (hi-res): A lossless incarnation of Windows Media Audio, but no longer well-supported by smartphones or tablets.  LOSSLESS

What is the best format for music files?

A lossless or uncompressed audio file format is the best format for sound quality. These include FLAC, WAV, or AIFF. These types of files are considered “hi-res” because they are better or equal to CD-quality. The tradeoff is that these files will be very large.

Bit Rates for Lossy sound files

Bit rates range from 96 to 320 kilobits per second (Kbps). Using a bit rate of 128 Kbps usually results in a sound quality equivalent to what you’d hear on the radio. Many music sites and blogs urge people to use a bit rate of 160 Kbps or higher if they want the MP3 file to have the same sound quality as a CD. 320 kbps is used for better audio quality. Higher bitrates can produce a higher quality effect as they can hold lots of data (technically speaking) whereas 128 kbps dumps the data in small areas. So 320 kbps sounds better. But the trade-off is larger file sizes. A 256 kpbs will be about double the size of a 128 kbps file size and a 320 kbps file will be close to 3 times the file size of a 128 kbps file.