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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.

Timeline of audio format developments


Dolby Digital surround cinema sound Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS)
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)
1993 Digital Theatre System (DTS)
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

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