Jukeboxes
Continuing the analogy with the graphical data, this format can be compared with the format bmp – as much information and very large sizes. One minute of audio from CD-quality format Raw pcm takes up about 10 megabytes. Even with today's hard disk drive for producers own Jukebox is a bit too much. Not surprisingly, the widespread popularity acquired audio compression format providing the coefficient compression of about 1:10 compared to Raw pcm at almost the same quality sound. These formats use compression algorithms to lossy audio. They can be compared with the graphic format jpg. Jpg file size is much smaller than similar bmp-file, but the image quality is somewhat worse (the more compression ratio – the worse the quality). Among the audio compression format with losses to date in the lead three: mp3, wma, and Ogg Vorbis.
The most popular format of course is an mp3. This format is supported by almost all software players for Windows, many players for Linux and countless hardware audio players and handheld computers. However, the mp3 is connected a problem that not everybody knows. Mp3 format patented. This means that any developer of software that uses a format mp3, must pay royalties. For this reason, many free programs that work with sound, do not support mp3. However, the authors of some of the mp3-codecs, such as lame, found a way around these restrictions, placing the responsibility on users. The same goes by many non-profit programs, including the ability to work with mp3.