Why do midi files need less space than a audio recording of the same music?

A MIDI file, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface file, is a type of digital music format that stores information about the notes, timing, and other aspects of a musical performance, but not the actual audio data itself. Instead, MIDI files contain instructions that tell a compatible device or software synthesizer how to create the sounds. This means that MIDI files are significantly smaller in size compared to audio recordings, as they only store the instructions for the music rather than the actual audio samples.

An audio recording, on the other hand, such as an MP3 or WAV file, stores the actual sound waves that have been digitally sampled at a specific rate (e.g., 44.1 kHz CD-quality audio). Audio files are much larger in size because they contain the raw data representing the sounds, which can be several megabytes or even gigabytes in size, depending on the length of the recording and the quality settings used.

In summary, MIDI files are much smaller in size than audio recordings because they only store the instructions for how to create the music, rather than the actual audio samples themselves.