Choosing the Right Bitrate for Your Radio Stream
Bitrate is the quality vs bandwidth trade-off. Higher bitrate = better sound but more bandwidth used. Lower bitrate = saves bandwidth but sounds worse.
Getting it wrong means either wasting bandwidth (and money) on quality listeners won't hear, or sounding terrible when you didn't need to.
Here's how to pick the right number.
The Quick Decision Chart
| Your Content | Recommended Bitrate | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Talk/Speech only | 64 kbps (Opus) or 96 kbps (MP3) | Speech doesn't need high bitrate. Opus at 64kbps sounds excellent for talk. |
| Music (acceptable quality) | 128 kbps MP3 | Industry standard. Sounds good on phone speakers, car stereo, cheap headphones. |
| Music (good quality) | 192 kbps MP3 | Noticeable improvement on decent speakers/headphones. Sweet spot for music stations. |
| Music (maximum quality) | 256-320 kbps MP3 or AAC | Near-CD quality. Only worth it if your audience has good equipment and connection. |
| Mix (talk + music) | 128-160 kbps MP3 | Compromise that handles both reasonably well. |
Understanding the Numbers
kbps = kilobits per second. It's how much data you're transmitting each second.
Example: 128 kbps stream = 128 kilobits of data every second.
For comparison:
- CD audio: 1,411 kbps (uncompressed)
- Spotify "Normal": ~96 kbps
- Spotify "High": ~160 kbps
- Spotify "Very High": ~320 kbps
What Actually Affects Sound Quality
Bitrate isn't the only factor. These all matter:
1. Source Audio Quality
If you're encoding 128kbps from 64kbps YouTube rips, you're just making bad audio bigger. Garbage in, garbage out.
Use high-quality source files (320kbps MP3, FLAC, WAV) even if you're streaming at lower bitrate. The encoder will downsample properly.
2. Codec Choice
At the same bitrate:
- Opus sounds best (especially for speech/low bitrates)
- AAC sounds better than MP3
- MP3 sounds fine and works everywhere
- Vorbis sounds better than MP3 but has compatibility issues
64kbps Opus for talk radio genuinely sounds better than 96kbps MP3. It's not marketing - it's better compression algorithms.
3. Listener's Equipment
Phone speaker? Won't hear the difference between 128 and 320 kbps.
£300 headphones? Definitely will.
Know your audience. Hospital radio on bedside speakers? 128 kbps is plenty. Audiophile jazz station? Maybe go 256-320 kbps.
The Bandwidth Cost Reality
Higher bitrate = more bandwidth used = higher costs (potentially).
Bandwidth formula:
(Bitrate × Number of Listeners) / 8 = Bandwidth in KBps
Examples:
100 listeners at 128 kbps:
(128 × 100) / 8 = 1,600 KBps = 1.6 MBps bandwidth used
100 listeners at 320 kbps:
(320 × 100) / 8 = 4,000 KBps = 4.0 MBps
That's 2.5× more bandwidth for 320 kbps vs 128 kbps. Most plans include sufficient bandwidth, but worth checking if you're streaming very high quality to lots of listeners.
Mobile vs Desktop Listeners
Smart solution: Offer two streams.
/live→ 192 kbps for desktop/WiFi listeners/mobile→ 96 kbps for mobile data users
Mobile listeners on 4G don't want to burn through data. Desktop listeners on broadband want quality. Give them both.
Icecast handles this with mountpoints. SHOUTcast v2 can do it too. Your web player can auto-detect connection speed and pick the appropriate stream.
Can You Change Bitrate Later?
Yes, easily. Change the setting in your encoder or MediaCP, restart the stream. Takes 30 seconds.
Start conservative (128 kbps), test with real listeners on different devices, adjust if needed. No harm in experimenting.
The "Good Enough" Principle
Broadcast engineers live by this: good enough quality that listeners don't complain, but not so high you're wasting resources.
For most community/internet radio:
- 128 kbps MP3 is genuinely fine
- 192 kbps MP3 is noticeably better and worth it if bandwidth allows
- 320 kbps is overkill unless you're a specialized music station with audiophile listeners
We run national broadcaster infrastructure in our day jobs. They broadcast at 128-192 kbps for internet streams. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for your station.
Special Cases
DAB/FM Backup Feeds
Match your transmitter input: If your DAB multiplex expects 192 kbps, send 192 kbps. Don't make them transcode - it adds latency and potential failure points.
Relaying Another Stream
Match the source bitrate or go lower, never higher. Re-encoding 128 kbps to 320 kbps doesn't add quality, just file size.
Podcasts from Live Streams (AutoPod)
Your live stream bitrate becomes your podcast bitrate. 128 kbps is standard for podcasts. Going higher is fine but makes download sizes bigger for listeners.
Testing Different Bitrates
How to test properly:
- Stream at 128 kbps, record 60 seconds
- Stream at 192 kbps, record 60 seconds
- Stream at 256 kbps, record 60 seconds
- Play all three back on the worst speakers/headphones your listeners use
- Can you hear a difference? Is it worth the extra bandwidth cost?
Do this A/B test yourself. Don't trust articles (including this one). Your ears + your content + your audience's equipment = the only thing that matters.
Our Recommendation
Start with 128 kbps MP3.
It's the safe default. Sounds good, works everywhere, doesn't waste bandwidth. After a month of broadcasting, if you think "this could sound better," try 192 kbps. If listeners on mobile complain about data usage, add a 96 kbps mobile stream.
Don't overthink it. Pick a sensible number and start broadcasting. You can always change it.
Need help choosing? Talk to our engineers - we'll recommend based on your content type and expected audience.
Ready to start streaming? View our hosting plans
Last updated: November 2025
