Open mp3 file

mp3 file icon Did your computer fail to open mp3 file? We explain what mp3 files are and recommend software that we know can open your mp3 files.

What is mp3 file?

The mp3 file extension is traditionally used for one of the most common types of compressed audio files, MP3s, which you can playback using almost any media player.

mp3 file description

File extension mp3 is used for MPEG-1 Layer III Audio Streams - audio files commonly referred to as MP3s. This standard has evolved from early MPEG (The Moving Picture Experts Group) work. It is an audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 specifications.

MP3 lossy audio compression algorithm was developed by Karlheinz Brandenburg at German Fraunhofer Institute and introduced in 1991.

MP3 uses perceptual audio coding to compress CD-quality sound with almost the same fidelity. It is the most used audio file format to store music supported by various software and hardware multimedia players, mobile phones, portable players, smartphones, tablets, cd players, DJs decks, etc.

There also exists a lossless version called MP3HD. Both share the same MP3 file extension.

Fraunhofer Institute, a developer and owner of rights for MP3, announced the MP3 format as obsolete in May 2017.

MIME types used for mp3 sound files:
audio/mp3
audio/mpeg3
audio/mpg
audio/mpeg
audio/x-mpeg
audio/x-mpeg-3
audio/mp3
audio/x-mpegaudio
audio/x-mpg
audio/x-mp3
audio/mpeg3
video/mpeg
video/x-mpeg

Software that will open mp3 file

Media Player

Windows 11 default media player.

Microsoft Windows Media Player

The default multimedia player from Microsoft Windows

Apple iTunes for Mac

Program used to organize and plays your digital music and video

Other mp3 file extensions

mp3 - Masterpoint green points data

An mp3 file extension can be also used for simple text files that contain saved game scores from some Bridge card game by Masterpoint.

mp3 - TeslaCrypt 3.0 ransomware encrypted data

Files with mp3 file extension may also be found as encrypted files affected by TeslaCrypt 3.0 variant that first appeared in February 2016.

What file extension actually is?

Simply put, file extensions are the characters after the dot in the file name, so for example filename.mp3 has file extension „mp3“. This helps Windows to identify which program should be used to open the file.

We can help you to open your file

Our database contains a huge list of different file extensions, usually with detailed description and programs that can be used to open or otherwise work with that particular file type.

Only original software

Every software listed in our database is verified and ve provide link to the developer or to the software own website, which should hopefuly be enough for you to download the most recent version of the program.