Know your digital audio formats
May 13th, 2009 by Donald BellThere was a time when all you had to worry about was music coming on CD, cassette or vinyl and telling them apart was obvious.
Today, for mere mortals, making sense of the many digital audio formats isn't easy. Telling the difference between MP3, WMA and WAV files isn't always clear and determining each format's advantages and limitations takes some homework, too.
To demystify some of the jargon, we've put together this Audio Formats 101 that covers most of the basic formats that people encounter on their computers. We won't go so far as to say which formats work best (that's a judgement call everyone needs to make for themselves), but you'll get a sense of which formats work on the iPod, and some clues for how those WMA files got in your music collection.
(All images were sourced from CNET.com)
Digital audio formats — MP3
The MP3 format is the most well known of all the digital audio formats. You can find MP3s all over the web and they work with just about everything — from your Mac or PC, to your iPod or mobile phone. They're also easy to spot with their .mp3 file extension.
Most online music stores offer songs in the MP3 format, including Amazon, eMusic, Rhapsody and Walmart. But the most popular online music store by far, iTunes, doesn't sell MP3s at all.
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