Which mime type should I use for mp3

Question

I'm trying to decide which mime type to choose for returning mp3 data (served up by php)

according to this listing of mime types: http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mime-types.shtml

.mp3    audio/mpeg3
.mp3    audio/x-mpeg-3
.mp3    video/mpeg
.mp3    video/x-mpeg

What are the difference between these, and which should I use?

score 161 · Accepted Answer · answered May 21 '12 at 16:03

161

Your best bet would be using the RFC defined mime-type audio/mpeg.

answered May 21 '12 at 16:03

saluce

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Chrome 26 knows better and uses `audio/mp3`... Go figure. – Nux Apr 05 '13 at 11:31
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Here is the [Chromium bug](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=227004), he just turned 3 today. I'm sure he's going to stick around for a few more years, so smile and wish him a happy birthday. :) – jgillich Apr 05 '16 at 20:39
@pollaris There is no such thing as multiple mime types, because a file is only of one type. Ideally, you would return `audio/mpeg` if you are returning an mp3 file or `audio/wav` if you are returning a wav file. You could use the generic `application/octet-stream` to indicate a binary file if you didn't want to code for returning the actual mime type, but then the browser might not treat the file the way you expect. – saluce Oct 26 '17 at 14:57
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@jgillich - you were right. 6 years and can now ride a bicycle https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=227004 – Kae Verens Jun 09 '19 at 09:53
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The Chrome bug has been fixed! Not sure when it'll make it into Chrome. – M Somerville May 02 '20 at 19:02

score 35 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 19 '15 at 09:38

I had a problem with mime types and where making tests for few file types. It looks like each browser sends it's variation of a mime type for a specific file. I was trying to upload mp3 and zip files with open source php class, that what I have found:

Firefox (mp3): audio/mpeg
Firefox (zip): application/zip
Chrome (mp3): audio/mp3
Chrome (zip): application/octet-stream
Opera (mp3): audio/mp3
Opera (zip): application/octet-stream
IE (mp3): audio/mpeg
IE (zip): application/x-zip-compressed

So if you need several file types to upload, you better make some tests so that every browser could upload a file and pass mime type check.

score 12 · Answer 3 · answered May 21 '12 at 16:02

12

Use .mp3 audio/mpeg, that's the one I always used. I guess others are just aliases.

answered May 21 '12 at 16:02

zessx

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score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 02 '14 at 08:28

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You should always use audio/mpeg, because firefox cannot play audio/mpeg3 files

answered Jul 02 '14 at 08:28

Johnny Zhao

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Firefox doesn't like audio/mp3 either – Adria Nov 17 '14 at 18:51

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 27 '15 at 04:34

4

The standard way is to use audio/mpeg which is something like this in your PHP header function ...

header('Content-Type: audio/mpeg');

answered Jun 27 '15 at 04:34

Madan Sapkota

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 09 '20 at 02:39

mp3 files sometimes throw strange mime types as per this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2755288/14482130

If you are doing some user validation do not allow 'application/octet-stream' or 'application/x-zip-compressed' as suggested above since they can contain be .exe or other potentially dangerous files.

In order to validate when mime type gives a false negative you can use fleep as per this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/52570299/14482130 to finish the validation.

Which mime type should I use for mp3

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