If you’re someone who loves listening to music, you’ve probably come across these two file formats: MP3 and MP4. But have you ever wondered what the difference is between the two? In this post, we’ll break down the key differences between MP3 and MP4.
First off, both MP3 and MP4 are compressed file formats that allow you to take large audio files and shrink them down to a smaller size. MP3 is the more common of the two and is what we call a “lossy” audio format. This means that it loses some information from the original audio data in order to compress the file. It does this by analyzing the waveforms in the original sound file and finding things that aren’t that important. For example, it takes out higher frequencies that humans have trouble hearing, as well as lower frequencies that some speakers and headphones can’t even produce.
On the other hand, MP4 has two different versions: AAC and ALAC. AAC stands for “Advanced Audio Codec” and is a technology developed by Apple. Like MP3, it is also a lossy compression format, but it doesn’t lose as much audio data as MP3. However, it doesn’t compress as well, so it can’t make files quite as small as MP3 can. The audio codec itself still gives you a lot more information and produces much higher quality audio.
The other version of MP4 is ALAC, which stands for “Apple’s Advanced Lossless Audio Codec”. This format compresses audio down to not quite as small as MP3 or even AAC, but it is actually completely lossless and doesn’t lose any of the information from the original audio file. It does this by looking at the actual ones and zeros from the audio file, noticing patterns, and then storing those patterns for a computer to later decode. The disadvantage of ALAC is that it is the least compatible format, and you need to make sure that your computer or MP3 player has an ALAC codec. However, as long as it does, you’re set up to have high-quality audio at a fraction of the space.
In conclusion, both MP3 and MP4 are compressed file formats that allow you to take large audio files and shrink them down to a smaller size. MP3 is a lossy audio format that loses some information from the original audio data, while MP4 has two different versions: AAC and ALAC. AAC is also a lossy compression format but produces higher quality audio than MP3. ALAC compresses audio down to a smaller size without losing any information from the original audio file, but it is the least compatible format. Whether you choose MP3 or MP4 will depend on the level of audio quality you’re looking for and how much space you have available.