Why Digital Music Codecs are Killing Your Songs

Have you ever downloaded a song online, and thought that it sounds off to you? You’re not alone. You might have run into what’s called a “codec killer.”

When music is compressed into a digital file, like a MP3 or AAC, the full range of sounds, mostly highs and lows, get reduced. As a result, you’ll never hear all of the sounds captured by the artist during the recording process.

Though we may never hear true audio, as its fully intended by the artists, to the majority of us, will never realize this. Not only do you need a trained ear to miss the full audio intentions of the music prior to codec’ing the audio, but even a CD doesn’t reproduce what you can experience when attending a live concert!

The codec has brought us an easier and more quickly adaptive way to store, and purchase our music collections. In our increasingly busy lives, I see the codec as a convenience that most listeners of MP3’s, AAC, and others will never know the difference from there previous book of CD’s they once listened to.

Maybe someday someone will invent a lossless audio file format compatible with portable players.