MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, also known as MP3, is a popular audio encoding that is used extensively as a dissemination/delivery format. Despite its wide adoption, ideally, it is not suitable for preservation purposes since it uses lossy data compression, which results in loss of quality.

The FFmpeg tool can help you to convert almost any audio and video file from the command line. It is free to use, and is available for Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. However, before depositing audiovisual material in the DANS Archive, please always contact DANS for discussion on the available formats/containers and possible migrations.

MP3 is a DANS non-preferred audio coding format.