Embodiments of the present invention provide a multiple description audio coding and decoding method, apparatus, and system. The audio coding method includes: dividing residual signals indicating current audio signal information into multiple frequency band parts having different frequencies; respectively coding the multiple frequency band parts by using multiple description coding (MDC) methods with different speech quality; and combining each of description signal parts that are generated after coding is performed by using different MDC methods to form multiple description bit streams of the residual signals. According to the present invention, multiple description coding and decoding methods with different speech quality are used for different frequency bands, which reduces the bit rate of multiple description coding and decoding, improves the effect of multiple description coding and decoding, and hence enhances the quality of audio transmission.