| | The '''Free Lossless Audio Codec''', abbreviated as FLAC, is, as the name suggests, an [[open source|open-source]] [[lossless]] digital [[audio codec]], and purports itself to be the fastest, most widely supported lossless audio codec<ref>http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html</ref>. FLAC has been incorporated under the banner of the [[Xiph.org Foundation]], along with [[Ogg Vorbis|Vorbis]], [[Speex]], [[Theora]] and others. | | The '''Free Lossless Audio Codec''', abbreviated as FLAC, is, as the name suggests, an [[open source|open-source]] [[lossless]] digital [[audio codec]], and purports itself to be the fastest, most widely supported lossless audio codec<ref>http://flac.sourceforge.net/comparison.html</ref>. FLAC has been incorporated under the banner of the [[Xiph.org Foundation]], along with [[Ogg Vorbis|Vorbis]], [[Speex]], [[Theora]] and others. |
| | '''MP3''' (short for '''MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3''') is a set of audio decoding and encoding [[algorithm]]s created by Fraunhofer IIS in Germany, which can achieve high compression ratio with little loss in audio quality. | | '''MP3''' (short for '''MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3''') is a set of audio decoding and encoding [[algorithm]]s created by Fraunhofer IIS in Germany, which can achieve high compression ratio with little loss in audio quality. |
| | Although newer codecs can offer higher compression ratio or higher audio quality for a given ratio, MP3 has remained popular due to its near-universal compatibility. | | Although newer codecs can offer higher compression ratio or higher audio quality for a given ratio, MP3 has remained popular due to its near-universal compatibility. |
| | '''Vorbis''', commonly known as Ogg Vorbis, due to the common use of [[Ogg]] as a containment wrapper for Vorbis, is an [[open source|open-source]] audio compression codec which is capable of delivering greater audio quality at a lower file size than does [[MP3]]. Vorbis is also free of the aggressive copyright policy that MP3 is licensed under, which forces software writers to pay a fee to be able to legally write and distribute software that is capable of encoding audio as MP3. | | '''Vorbis''', commonly known as Ogg Vorbis, due to the common use of [[Ogg]] as a containment wrapper for Vorbis, is an [[open source|open-source]] audio compression codec which is capable of delivering greater audio quality at a lower file size than does [[MP3]]. Vorbis is also free of the aggressive copyright policy that MP3 is licensed under, which forces software writers to pay a fee to be able to legally write and distribute software that is capable of encoding audio as MP3. |