Whats the recommended bit rate for each format?
It’s best to offer a streaming version (Windows Media and/or Real Media) of your song that will work well for people on 56K modems, and a higher quality MP3 version for people that like your song enough to download it. If you don’t offer a streaming version, or if your song doesn’t stream well because it’s encoded at too high of a bit rate, many people will just move on to the next song. If you don’t have a higher quality MP3 version for people to download, people that like your song and would like to download a better copy might be frustrated. With these criteria in mind, our recommended bit rate for each format is 48kbps for Windows Media, the “56Kbps Stereo” setting for Real Media and 128kbps for MP3’s. Most software for encoding songs into Windows Media (.wma, .wmv, .asf) and Real Media (.rm, .ra) files offer at least some general choices for bit rates in the form of templates. There is usually one called something like 56Kbps Stereo that is intended for people of 56K modems. You c
