Audio Quality in Music are measured in the amount of information they play per second. In most cases, it’s measured in Kbps, or kilobits per second. This is the amount of sound information presented to the listener every second. The standard mp3 is 320 Kbps. Store bought CD quality is 1,411 Kbps, and some files like Sony Hi-Res go up to 4,608 Kbps. On the other hand, files played over Internet like spotfy or apple music are around 256kbps FM radio can even be as low as 56 or 64 Kbps to allow faster transport over the air
As with everything else in life, there is a tradeoff in getting this improved sound. For the increased detail and better sound quality, you give up space on your phone or sacrifice convenience by ditching your phone and using a dedicated music device. The extra information and detail mean that more memory is taken up. The size of these files is usually measured in megabytes, or MB. For comparison, the size of current hard drives is measured in gigabytes, or GB. There are approximately 1,000MB in each GB. If your songs are recorded at a lower bit rate, you can fit more songs on your drive — but they won’t sound as
good. It all depends on what you want — more songs or better quality.
In analog technology, a wave is recorded or used in its original form. So, for example, in an analog tape recorder, a signal is taken straight from the microphone and laid onto tape. The wave from the microphone is an analog wave, and therefore the wave on the tape is analog as well. That wave on the tape can be read, amplified and sent to a speaker to produce the sound.
In digital technology, the analog wave is sampled at some interval, and then turned into numbers that are stored in the digital device. To hear the music, the numbers are turned into a voltage wave that approximates the original wave.
Phonogram: 32kbps 1877 Anolog
Record: 650kbps 1948 Anolog
Reel to Reel: 424kbps 1949 Anolog
8 Track: 96bit-112kbps 1968 Anolog
Cassette tapes: 128bit-160kbps 1964 Anolog
Compact Disk (CD): 1,411kbps 1982 Digital
Mini Disk: 292kbps 1992 Digital (Failed in USA)
DCC: 768kbps 1992 Digital (Failed)
Super CD: 5,644kbps 1999 Digital (Failed)
DVD Audio: 9,600kbps 1999 Digital (Failed)
Slacker Radio: 320kbps MP3.
Google Play Music: 320kbps MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, or ALAC
Spotify: 320kbps AAC
Tital: 320kbps FLAC, ALAC, AAC
Deezer: 320kbps FLAC
Qobuz: 320kbps MP3, FLAC
Amazon Music: 320kbps FLAC
Soundcloud: 256kbps AAC
YouTube Music: 256kbps AAC
iTunes: 256kbps AAC
Napster: 256kbps WMA
Pandora: 192kbps AAC
Sony Hi-Res: 4,608kbps FLAC,ALAC,DSD
Amazon HD Audio: 3,730kbps FLAC
Deezer HQ: 1,411kbps FLAC
Tidal HQ: 1,411kbps FLAC, ALAC, AAC
AAC: Apple's alternative to MP3. Lossy and compressed, but sounds better. Used for iTunes downloads and Apple Music streaming.
ALAC (Apple Lossless) a good iOS and iTunes compatible alternative to FLAC, although the files are slightly less compact than FLACs poor smartphone and tablet compatibility, though.
FLAC: 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).
MP3: Popular, lossy compressed format ensures small file size, but far from the best sound quality. Convenient for storing music on smartphones and iPods.
OGG: 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.
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).
WMA Lossless (hi-res): A lossless incarnation of Windows Media Audio, but no
longer well-supported by smartphones or tablets.
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.
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.
MQA (hi-res): A lossless compression format that packages hi-res files for more efficient streaming. Used for Tidal Masters hi-res streaming.