What is a MP3 file?
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III) was developed largely at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany and standardised by MPEG in the early 1990s. It made digital music practical by shrinking CD audio to roughly a tenth of its size.
MP3 is lossy: it uses a model of human hearing to drop sounds you are unlikely to notice, such as quiet tones masked by louder ones. At 192–320 kbps most listeners cannot tell it from the original. Newer codecs like AAC and Opus sound better at the same size, but none matches MP3's reach: every phone, car stereo, smart speaker, DJ program and website accepts it. The MP3 patents expired in 2017, so it is now free for anyone to use.
MP3 at a glance
| Full name | MPEG-1 Audio Layer III |
|---|---|
| File extensions | .mp3 |
| Created by | Fraunhofer IIS and MPEG |
| Introduced | 1993 |
| Compression | Lossy |
| Codecs inside | MP3, usually 128–320 kbps |
| Typical size | About 1 MB per minute at 128 kbps, 2.4 MB at 320 kbps |
| Opens on | Every phone, computer, car stereo, speaker and app |
| Best for | Music and podcasts that must play anywhere |
How to open a MP3 file
Every media player opens MP3. To make one, use the Audio Converter for audio files or MP4 to MP3 to take the sound from a video. To cut a section out, use the Audio Trimmer.