A Bit Rate is the amount of data (bits) used to represent one second of digital audio.

A high bit rate means that more data is being used each second, which generally results in higher audio quality, but also in a larger file.

A low bitrate results in a smaller file, but with potential loss of quality. Bitrate is usually measured in kilobits per second (kb/s) or megabits per second (Mb/s). Practical Examples Audio CD (uncompressed): The bitrate is constant and calculated as follows: 2 channels (stereo) x 16 bits x 44,100 samples/s = 1,411.2 kb/s MP3 (with lossy compression): Varies from 128 kb/s (radio quality) to 320 kb/s (near-CD quality).

Dolby Digital 5.1 (on DVDs): Generally between 384 kb/s and 448 kb/s to transmit all six surround sound channels.

In compressed audio formats, the bitrate is the main indicator of the file's sound quality.