What Are Bitrates in MP3s?

Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re talking about bitrates. Bitrates represent a sliding scale of quality and size when it comes to the MP3 file format. They’re measured in kbps, or, kilobits per second. Common bitrates for music files are 128 and 192kbps. As most podcasts are purely spoken-word content, we probably don’t need to go this high, though. With our own shows, we tend to opt for 96kbps, but some go as low as 64kbps - most famously, Marc Maron. And he does alright, eh? If setting your bitrates manually, you’ll also need to choose between Constant Bitrate and Variable Bitrate. For podcasting, you should always choose “constant”. These are options you’ll find in any DAW when you’re exporting your episode to MP3 form. And, surprise surprise, your pal Alitu just gets on with it and does it all for you. For a deeper dive on this topic, head on over to http://thepodcasthost.com/bitrates