2023-09-11 19:17:00
The bit rate is the flow of bits per second that are transmitted. In music audio files, the bitrate is related to the average data transmission of the audio signal following the file compression and decompression process. Discover how to calculate the bitrate of a song and what the difference is in practice between different bitrates.
How to calculate the bitrate of a song?
What is bitrate and how to calculate it to know the data flow transmitted in a song. Source: riverside.fm
To calculate the bitrate of a song with a PCM (Pulse-code modulation) stream, you must multiply the sample rate by the bit depth and the number of channels. In case of headphones and stereo sim box system, there are two channels. In this scenario, you must follow the formula below to calculate the bitrate of a song:
Sample rate x bit depth x 2 channels (stereo) = Bitrate
Below is the calculation of the bitrate provided by a CD quality song (16-bit/44.1 KHz):
44,1 KHz x 16 bit x 2 canais = 1411,2 kbps
What is the difference between bitrates in practice? What changes?
According to multi-format public listening test published by the website “listening-test.coresv.net”, even using a similar bitrate, the result in the perception of the audio quality of the songs may vary according to the codec/format used. In the case of this research, was discovered that the format with the best results using a bitrate of 96 kbps was Opus, followed by AAC, Ogg Vorbis and MP3. However, if you want minimally good audio quality, the ideal is to opt for a higher data stream (bitrate), for example, 256 kbps or 320 kbps.
Result of the public multi-format listening test published by the website “listening-test.coresv.net”. Source: listening-test.coresv.net
Songs that use formats such as those mentioned above are considered lossy, as they have suffered data loss compared to the original file. Codecs such as MP3 and AAC use a compression and decompression process using algorithms to exclude parts of the information that will not considerably affect the perception of audio quality. The more compressed the file, the smaller its size (example: 1 MB) and bitrate (example: 256 kbps).
What is the bitrate of lossless music?
To make things easier, check out a table below with the bitrate calculated for each audio file resolution of lossless songs.
Bit depth
Sampling rate
Channels
Bitrate
16 bits
44,1 KHz
2
1411,2 kbps
16 bits
48 KHz
2
1536 kbps
24 bits
88,2 KHz
2
4236,6 kbps
24 bits
96 KHz
2
4608 kbps
24 bits
176,4 KHz
2
8467,2 kbps
24 bits
192 KHz
2
9216 kbps
What is the bitrate transmitted by each music streaming service?
Check below the bitrate of all music streaming services available in Brazil.
Streaming service
Bitrate
Amazon Music Unlimited
1411 kbps a 9216 kbps
Apple Music
1411 kbps a 9216 kbps
Free Deezer
128 kbps
Deezer Premium
1411 kbps
Qobuz
1411 kbps a 9216 kbps
Spotify Free
160 kbps
Spotify Premium
320 kbps
Tidal Hi-Fi
1411 kbps
Tidal Hi-Fi Plus
1411 kbps a 9216 kbps
YouTube Music
256 kbps
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