Although streaming platforms such as Spotify are more fashionable than ever thanks to their great musical variety, reduced price and convenience of not having to manually download the files, many users still prefer to have music stored locally, for which there are formats like MP3, FLAC, AAC and OGG.
These formats are currently the most widespread for music on our devices, being able to pass files between PC and mobile without relying on the Internet and without being afraid of depleting our data rate. Most of the formats that we are going to deal with are formats that compress information, and therefore have quality losses. About the compression of images and files we talked a while ago.
Why does a compressed file occupy less?
Audio formats with losses: MP3, AAC and OGG
The first of the formats that we are going to try is MP3. This format, whose acronym stands for MPEG Audio Layer III, is the most commonly used format with loss of quality. It is not the one that offers the best quality or best compression, but its great compatibility has made the standard format for music for decades.
Another widely used format for sound in recent years is AAC. It is very similar in MP3 performance, but has the advantage that it is able to offer the same quality in a smaller size. This is the reason why platforms like Apple’s iTunes use it, and the fact that Apple uses it has made its compatibility as great as MP3’s today. AAC is also used to compress stereo sound in movies of 1 or 2 GB in size that we find in various torrent portals, direct download or streaming.
The next most used format is OGG, or OGG Vorbis, it is a free alternative to AAC and MP3 (although the MP3 patent ended last May). Its size is similar to that of MP3, but its compression is smaller, keeping a higher audio quality than MP3, especially at high frequencies, which destroys the MP3 the lower the bitrate. In addition, while MP3 reaches 320 Kbps, OGG reaches up to 500 Kbps.
Lossless audio formats: FLAC, ALAC and WAV
On the other hand, we have FLAC. This lossless format is free, as indicated by its name (Free Lossless Audio Codec). The size of your files is between 5 and 10 times larger than MP3, but it has no losses, although the audio is “compressed.” Thus, it occupies much less than uncompressed formats such as WAV or AIFF, and maintaining the same sound quality.
The equivalent of FLAC in Apple is ALAC. Although it is not as efficient as FLAC (its files occupy more), ALAC owns Apple, and is the only alternative that can be used in iTunes, since the platform does not read FLAC.
In short, the best format to use is always FLAC if you can afford its large size, followed by AAC and OGG. If you have no choice, MP3, although it is the least desirable option, is the most widespread today, and what you will be forced to use for a lot of music on the network.
