General Information
| Audio compression format | Creator | First public release date | Latest stable version | Encoder Cost | Player Cost | Proprietary implementations (codecs) | Open-source implementations (codecs) | Application (besides consumer audio) | Music reproduction (consumer audio) | telephony app | Lossless audio compression | Patented | DRM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAC | ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee | 1997 | ISO/IEC 14496-3 | Non-free | Non-free | FAAC (encoding only), iTunes, Nero Digital Audio | FAAD2 (decoding only), FFmpeg, Android OpenCORE AAC (decoding only) | Digital TV service, internet streaming | Yes | No | No | Non-free Yes | Non-free FairPlay (.m4p Only, Discontinued) |
| AC-3 | Dolby Laboratories | 1992 | ? | Non-free | Non-free | DVD players, Digital television | FFmpeg, liba52 (decoding only), Aften (encoding only), libavc (2.0 channels max) | Theatrical movie presentation, Digital TV service & home-video (personal recorders, DVD, etc.) | No | No | No | Non-free Yes | ? |
| ALAC | Apple Inc. | 2004-04-28 | QuickTime 7.6 | Free | Free | QuickTime, iTunes, RealPlayer | MacOSforge, FFmpeg | - | Music archival | Yes | Yes | ? | Possible, but never Implemented |
| ALS | ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee | 2005 | ISO/IEC 14496-3 | Free | Free | mp4als | FFmpeg (decoding only) | - | - | No | Yes | Non-free Yes | ? |
| AMR | 3GPP | 1999-06-22 | ETSI TS 126 071 V9.0.0 (2009) | Non-free | Non-free | QuickTime, RealPlayer | FFmpeg (decoding only), FFmpeg with OpenCORE libraries, Android | voice recording | No | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | No |
| AMR-WB (G.722.2) |
3GPP | 2001-04-10 | ETSI TS 126 190 V8.0.0 (2009-01) | Non-free | Non-free | QuickTime, RealPlayer | FFmpeg (decoding only), FFmpeg with VisualOn libraries, Android (decoding only), opencore-amr for both encoding and decoding | voice recording | No | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | No |
| AMR-WB+ | 3GPP | 2004-06-14 | ETSI TS 126 290 V8.0.0 (2009-01) | Non-free | Non-free | ? | ? | voice recording | Yes | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | No |
| apt-X | APTX | 1989 | 2007 | Non-free | Non-free | broadcast audio codecs: Systembase, APT, AVT, Harris Corporation, MAYAH, Prodys, Qbit; wireless headphones: iSkin, JayBird Gear, DTS discs for movies | ? | low latency Studio/transmitter link, Bluetooth A2DP stereo, digital Wireless microphone | Yes | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | No |
| ATRAC | Sony Corp. | 1991 | ATRAC3plus | Non-free | Non-free | MiniDisc, Walkman, VAIO, Clie, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, SDDS, SonicStage, SoundForge, RealPlayer, ConnectPlayer | FFmpeg (decoding only, ATRAC3plus and ATRAC Advanced Lossless are not supported) | voice recording, Theatrical movie presentation | - | No | Yes | Non-free Yes | Non-free Yes |
| CELT | Xiph.Org Foundation, Jean-Marc Valin | 2007-12-08 | 0.11.1 | Free | Free | libcelt, FFmpeg with libcelt library (decoding only) | Speech, VoIP, Low latency, Studio/transmitter link, wireless audio | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Codec2 | David Rowe | 2010 | ? | Free | Free | c2enc, c2dec | low bandwidth HF/VHF digital radio, VOIP trunking | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| FLAC | Xiph.Org Foundation, Josh Coalson | 2001-07-20 | 1.2.1 | Free | Free | FLAC, Flake (encoding only), FFmpeg | - | - | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| G.711 | ITU-T | 1972 (ITU-T standard from 1988) | G.711 Appendix II (02/00) | Free | Free | various proprietary VoIP software | FFmpeg, Ekiga, Asterisk (PBX) and almost any VoIP software | voice recording | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| G.722 | ITU-T | 1988-11 | Free | Free | various proprietary VoIP software | Asterisk (PBX), QuteCom, FFmpeg | voice recording | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| G.722.1 | ITU-T | 1999-09 | G.722.1 (05/05) | Free | Free | various proprietary VoIP software | FreeSWITCH, pjsip, etc | voice recording | No | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | No |
| G.722.2 (AMR-WB) |
ITU-T (adopted directly from 3GPP) | 2002-01 | G.722.2 (07/03) | Non-free | Non-free | QuickTime, RealPlayer | FFmpeg (decoding only), FFmpeg with VisualOn libraries, Android (decoding only) | voice recording, audio | No | No | No | Non-free Yes | No |
| G.723.1 | ITU-T | 1996-03 | G.723.1 (05/06) | Non-free | Non-free | various proprietary VoIP software | FFmpeg | voice recording | No | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | No |
| G.726 | ITU-T | 1990-12 | Free | Free | various proprietary VoIP software | FFmpeg, Ekiga and other VoIP software | voice recording | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| G.728 | ITU-T | 1992-09 | Non-free | Non-free | various proprietary VoIP software | voice recording | No | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | No | ||
| G.729 | ITU-T | 1996-03 | G.729 (01/07) | Non-free | Non-free | various proprietary VoIP software | FFmpeg (decoding only) | voice recording | No | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | No |
| GSM-FR | ETSI Special Mobile Group | 1990-1994 (ETS 300 580-2) | ETSI EN 300 961 V8.1.1 (2000–11) | Free | Free | FFmpeg (decoding only), FFmpeg with external library libgsm, Ekiga and other VoIP software | voice recording | No | Yes | No | ? | No | |
| iLBC | Global IP Solutions | 2002 | Free | Free | Cisco IP Communicator, old versions of Skype | Ekiga, Asterisk (PBX) and other VoIP software, FFmpeg with libilbc library | voice recording | No | Yes | No | No? | No | |
| iSAC | Global IP Solutions | ? | Free | Free | Yahoo! Messenger | WebRTC | voice recording | No | Yes | No | Free | ? | |
| Monkey's Audio | Matthew T. Ashland | 2000+ | 4.06 | Free | Free | Monkey's Audio | FFmpeg (decoding only) | - | - | No | Yes | ? | No |
| MP3 | ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee | 1993 | ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3 | Non-free (See notes) | Non-free (See notes) | FhG, l3enc, MP3enc, (old implementations: Xing TOMPG, SCMPX) | LAME (encoding only), FFmpeg (decoding only), libmad (decoding only),(old implementations: BladeEnc) | - | Yes | No | No | Non-free Yes (but see notes) |
Non-free Yes (optional, rarely used) |
| MP2 (MPEG-1, 2 Audio Layer II) | ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee | 1993 | ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3 | Non-free | Non-free | various DVD software, video software, audio software | TooLAME (encoding only), TwoLAME (encoding only), FFmpeg | DAB, DVB, DVD | Yes | No | No | Free No | ? |
| Musepack | Frank Klemm/MDT | 1997 | 1.30 (2009-04-02) | Free | Free | Musepack, FFmpeg (decoding only) | - | Yes | No | No | Maybe | ? | |
| Nellymoser Asao | Nellymoser Inc. | 2002 | ? | Non-free | Non-free | Adobe Flash, Flash Player | FFmpeg | voice recording | No | No | No | Non-free Yes | ? |
| Opus | IETF | 2012-09-11 | RFC 6716 (libopus 1.0.2) | Free | Free | libopus, FFmpeg with libopus library | Speech, VoIP, Low latency, Studio/transmitter link, wireless audio | Yes | Yes | No | royalty-free | No | |
| Shorten | Tony Robinson | 1999-06-02 | 1. | Free | Free | Shorten | FFmpeg (decoding only) | - | - | No | Yes | No | No |
| SILK | Skype Limited | 2009-01-07 | Free | Free | Skype | voice recording | No | No | No | Non-free Yes | ? | ||
| Siren 7 | PictureTel Corp. (now Polycom Inc.) | 1999 | ? | ? | Microsoft Office Communicator | FreeSWITCH (libg722_1, aMSN (libsiren - part of libmsn) | voice recording | No | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | ? | |
| Speex | Xiph.Org Foundation, Jean-Marc Valin | 2003-03-24 | 1.1.12 | Free | Free | Flash Player 10 | Speex, FFmpeg with libspeex library | voice recording | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| SVOPC | Skype Limited | 2007 | ? | ? | Skype | voice recording | No | Yes | No | Non-free Yes | ? | ||
| TwinVQ | Nippon Telegraph and Telephone | 1996 (?) | Non-free | Non-free | Winamp with VQF Plugin, NTT TwinVQ player/encoder, Yamaha SoundVQ player, Nero Media Player | FFmpeg (decoding only) | speech | Yes | No | No | Non-free Yes | ? | |
| Vorbis (Ogg) | Xiph.Org Foundation | 2000-05-11 | 1.3.2 | Free | Free | libvorbis, aoTuV, FFmpeg | - | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| WavPack | Conifer Software | 1998 | 4.60.1 | Free | Free | WavPack, FFmpeg (decoding only) | - | - | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Windows Media Audio | Microsoft | 1999 | 11.0 | Free Windows Media Encoder | Free for licensees of the Windows operating system | Windows Media Player, Windows Media Encoder | FFmpeg (decoding only for Pro, Lossless and Voice) | internet streaming | Yes | No | Yes | Non-free Yes | Non-free |
| Audio compression format | Creator | First public release date | Latest stable version | Encoder Cost | Player Cost | Proprietary implementations (codecs) | Open-source implementations (codecs) | Application | App: Music | App: telephony | Lossless audio compression | Patented | DRM |
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