Bit rate is essentially the amount of data that is processed per unit of time. In music, a higher bit rate means more data is processed, which in layman's terms means better quality sound. As opposed to CBR, VBR allows a higher bitrate (and therefore more storage space) to be allocated to the more complex segments of media files while less space is allocated to less complex segments. Basically, a higher bitrate is used (and more data is stored) during the "louder" parts of the song, and a lower bitrate is used (and less data is stored) during the "quieter" parts of the song. The advantages of VBR are that it produces a better quality-to-space ratio compared to a CBR file of the same data. While a constant 320k file might store a LOT of data throughout the entire song, it may not need to because parts of the song don't involve that much data.
In essence, VBR allows you to retain sound quality while reducing the digital size of the file, because 320cbr files are quite fat.
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