MPEG-1 Audio Layer II
| Filename extension |
.mp2, .mpa, .m2a, .mp2a |
|---|---|
| Internet media type |
audio/mpeg, audio/MPA |
| Developed by | Philips and others |
| Initial release | 6 December 1991 |
| Latest release | ISO/IEC 13818-3:1998 April 1998 |
| Type of format | Lossy audio |
| Contained by | MPEG-ES |
| Standard | ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3 |
| Open format? | Yes |
| Free format? | Expired patents |
| Website | http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/standards/mpeg-1/audio.html |
MP2 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer II or MPEG-2 Audio Layer II, sometimes incorrectly called Musicam) is a lossy audio compression format. It is standardised as one of the three audio codecs of MPEG-1 alongside MPEG-1 Audio Layer I (MP1) and MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3). The MP2 abbreviation is also used as a common file extension for files containing this type of audio data, or its extended variant MPEG-2 Audio Layer II.
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II was developed by Philips, CCETT and IRT as the MUSICAM algorithm, as part of the European-funded Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) project. Alongside its use on DAB broadcasts, the codec has been adopted as the standard audio format for Video CD and Super Video CD media, and also for HDV. On the other hand, MP3 (which was developed by a rival collaboration led by Fraunhofer Society called ASPEC) gained more widespread acceptance for PC and Internet applications. MP2 compresses less than MP3, but therefore also has less computational demands.