An audio format is a medium for storing sound and music. The term is applied to both the physical medium and the format of the content – in computer science it is often limited to the audio file format, but its wider use usually refers to the physical method used to store the data.
Music is recorded and distributed using a variety of audio formats, some of which store additional information.
| Year | Physical formats | Content formats |
|---|---|---|
| 1870s | Phonograph Cylinder | Mechanical analog; "hill-and-dale" grooves, vertical stylus motion |
| 1895 | Gramophone record | Mechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion |
| 1930s | Wire recording | Analog; magnetization; no "bias" |
| 1947 | Reel-to-Reel, Magnetic Tape | Analog; magnetization; "bias" dramatically increases linearity/fidelity |
| 1948 | Vinyl Record | Analog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques (LP, RIAA). Lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion. |
| 1957 | Stereophonic Vinyl Record | Analog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques. Combination lateral/vertical stylus motion with each channel encoded 45 degrees to the vertical. |
| 1962 | 4-Track | Analog, 1/4 inch wide tape, 3 3/4 inches/sec, endless loop cartridge. |
| 1963 | Compact Cassette | Analog, with bias, preemphasis, 1/8 inch wide tape, 17/8 inches/sec. 1970: introduced Dolby noise reduction. |
| 1965 | 8-Track | Analog, 1/4 inch wide tape, 3 3/4 inches/sec, endless loop cartridge. |
| 1969 | Microcassette | |
| 1970 | Quadraphonic 8-Track(Q8) | Analog, 1/4 inch wide tape, 3 3/4 inches/sec, 4 Channel Stereo, endless loop cartridge. |
| 1971 | Quadraphonic Vinyl Record(CD-4)(SQ Matrix) | |
| 1975 | Betamax Digital Audio | 'Dolby Stereo' cinema surround sound |
| 1976 | Elcaset | |
| 1982 | Compact Disc (CD) | |
| 1985 | Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) | |
| 1985 | Sound Designer (by Digidesign) | |
| 1987 | Digital Audio Tape (DAT) | |
| 1991 | MiniDisc (MD) | ATRAC |
| 1992 | Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) | |
| 1992 | WAVEform (WAV) | Dolby Digital surround cinema sound|
| 1993 | Digital Theatre System (DTS) | Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS)|
| 1995 | MP3 | |
| 1997 | DVD | |
| 1999 | Super Audio CD (SACD) | |
| 1999 | Windows Media Audio (WMA) | |
| 1999 | The True Audio Lossless Codec (TTA) | |
| 2000 | Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) | |
| 2001 | Advanced audio coding (AAC) | |
| 2002 | Ogg Vorbis | |
| 2003 | DualDisc | |
| 2004 | Apple Lossless (ALE or ALAC) | |
| 2006 | Ultra cd |
Computer Data Formats
Portable Players :: Audio
Software :: Music and Audio

AC3Filter - DirectShow AC3 filter.
Free Lossless Audio Coder - FLAC is an open source lossless audio codec, supports streaming, seeking and archival.
Meta Description: [ A free, open source codec for lossless audio compression and decompression ]
MPE Secure Media - Secure streaming media format giving authors, songwriters and publishers complete control over products distributed through the internet.
Meta Description: [ Secure streaming media software, protects your content and allows rights management . ]
Musepack - Home page of the open lossy audio compression format known as MPC, Musepack or MPEGPlus/MP+. Based on MPEG1 Layer-2/MP2 algorithms.
Meta Description: [ Musepack is an audio compression format with a strong emphasis on high quality. ]
OptimFROG - Loseless audio compression supporting IEEE Float audio data.
Speex - Open audio codec designed for speech, part of the Xiph.org Foundation.
Study on Audio Compression - Detailed comparison of various audio compression algorithms including ASF, RealAudio, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MOV, and VQF.
The Void: PC Audio Resource - Information about computer audio formats and sound cards.
Meta Description: [ Welcome to The Void's MIDI and Module music section! This section focuses on works by the page's owner as well as several other selected artists. ]
True Audio - Open lossless audio codec developed with the main requirements of reasonable compression level and high operation speed.
Vianix Corporation - Developed MASC technology (Managed Audio Sound Compression) memory-efficient audio compression algorithm providing voice emulation.
Meta Description: [ Buy the fastest voice compression in the business, MASC! Managed Audio Sound Compression features a fourteen to one compression ratio that measures 4.0-4.2 out of 5 on the Mean Opinion Scale, an industry standard measuring method, giving MASC telephone quality voice compression ]
WavPack - Open audio codec facilitating both loseless compression and a unique hybrid compression mode.
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