File extension MID or MIDI is used for files recording MIDI music messages. A MID sample file is provided. Free MID players and editors are listed.

File Extension: .MID or .MIDI

MIME Type: audio/midi

File Content: Music data.

What is MID or MIDI? MID is a file extension for files that store MIDI music messages. MIDI is a short name for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a standard protocol introduced in 1983 to enable electronic musical instruments, computers and other equipment sharing music data.

Technical notes on MIDI file format:

• A MIDI file does not store any audio signals.
• A MIDI file stores music data as event messages.
• An event messages contains the pitch and intensity of musical notes, plus control signals.
• A MIDI file can store up to 16 channels of event messages allowing multiple music instruments mixing music data together.
• A MIDI file is much smaller than other types of music files. For example, a 4-minute movie music MIDI file is only 26 KB. But a 4-minute movie music WAV file could be 4,000 KB.
• The official name of a MIDI file is SMF (Standard MIDI File).

Here are the first 128 bytes of a sample MIDI file dumped in HEX values:

4d 54 68 64 00 00 00 06 00 01 00 0e 01 80 4d 54 MThd..........MT
72 6b 00 00 00 76 00 ff 02 39 43 6f 70 79 72 69 rk...v...9Copyri
67 68 74 20 28 63 29 20 76 61 6e 42 61 73 63 6f ght..c..vanBasco
20 53 6f 66 74 77 61 72 65 2e 20 44 69 73 74 72 .Software..Distr
69 62 75 74 69 6f 6e 20 70 72 6f 68 69 62 69 74 ibution.prohibit
65 64 2e 00 ff 54 05 60 00 03 00 00 00 ff 21 01 ed...T..........
00 00 f0 0a 41 00 42 12 40 00 7f 00 00 f7 00 ff ....A.B.........
21 01 00 00 ff 58 04 04 02 18 08 00 ff 59 02 00 .....X.......Y..

"MThd" is the magic number of MIDI files.

MIDI sample file: Click sample.mid to download.

Music data stored in MIDI files can be retrieved and played by popular free software:

• Windows Media Player - Plays and generates MIDI and other music files.
• vanBasco's Karaoke Player - Plays MIDI music files.