Timeline of audio formats

An audio format is a medium for storing sound and music. The term is applied to both the physical recording media and the recording formats of the audio 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

Year	Media formats	Recording formats
1877	Phonograph cylinder	Mechanical analog; "hill-and-dale" grooves, vertical stylus motion
1883	Music roll	Mechanical digital (automated musical instruments)
1895	Gramophone record	Mechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion
1898	Wire recording	Analog; magnetization; DC "bias"
1925	Electrical cut record	Mechanical analog; electrically cut from amplified microphone signal, lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion, discs at 7", 10", 12", most at 78 rpm
1930s	Reel-to-Reel, Magnetic Tape	Analog; magnetization; AC "bias" dramatically increases linearity/fidelity, tape speed at 30 ips, later 15 ips and other refined speeds: 7½ ips, 3¾ ips, 1⅞ ips
	Electrical transcriptions	Mechanical analog; electrically cut from amplified microphone signal, high fidelity sound, lateral or vertical grooves, horizontal or vertical stylus motion, most discs 16" at 33⅓ rpm
1948	Vinyl Record	Analog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques (LP, RIAA); lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion; discs at 7" (most 45 rpm), 10" and 12" (most 33⅓ rpm)
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 (Stereo-Pak)	Analog, 1⁄4-inch-wide (6.4 mm) tape, 3¾ in/s, endless loop cartridge.
1963	Compact Cassette	Analog, with bias. 0.15-inch-wide (3.8 mm) tape, 1⅞ in/s. 1970: introduced Dolby noise reduction.
1965	8-Track (Stereo-8)	Analog, ¼ inch wide tape, 3¾ in/s, endless loop cartridge.
1969	Microcassette	Analog, ⅛ inch wide tape, used generally for notetaking, mostly mono, some stereo (developed in the early 80's). 2.4 cm/s or 1.2 cm/s.
	Minicassette	Analog, ⅛ inch wide tape, used generally for notetaking, 1.2 cm/s
1970	Quadraphonic 8-Track (Quad-8) (Q8)	Analog, ¼ inch wide tape, 3¾ in/s, 4 Channel Stereo, endless loop cartridge.
1971	Quadraphonic Vinyl Record (CD-4) (SQ Matrix)	Analog.
1975	Betamax Digital Audio	Digital.
		Analog. Dolby Stereo cinema surround sound.
1976	Elcaset	Analog.
1978	Laserdisc	Digital/Analog.
1982	Compact Disc (CD-DA)	Digital. Linear PCM (LPCM)
1985		Digital. Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)
1985		Digital. Sound Designer (by Digidesign) (SD and DIG formats).
1986	High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD)	Digital. Redbook compatible physical CD containing 20–24 bit information (uses Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM).
1987	Digital Audio Tape (DAT)	Digital.
1991	MiniDisc (MD)	Digital. Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC)
1992	Digital Compact Cassette (DCC)	Digital.
		Digital. WAVEform (WAV)
		Digital. Dolby Digital surround cinema sound. Also known as Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994.
1993		Digital. Digital Theatre System (DTS), Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS), MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3).
1994		Digital. TwinVQ.
1997	DVD	Digital. Dolby Digital, Digital Theatre System (DTS)
	DTS-CD	Digital. DTS Audio
1999	DVD-Audio	Digital. Including Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP), Linear PCM (LPCM), Dolby Digital (AC-3) and Digital Theatre System (DTS).
	Super Audio CD (SACD)	Digital. Direct Stream Digital
		Digital. Windows Media Audio (WMA)
		Digital. The True Audio Lossless Codec (TTA)
2000		Digital. Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
2001		Digital. Advanced audio coding (AAC)
2002		Digital. Ogg Vorbis
2003	DualDisc	Digital. Multiple formats encoded onto the same disc.
2004		Digital. Apple Lossless (ALE or ALAC)
2005	HD DVD	Digital. Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio
		Digital. OggPCM
2006	Blu-ray Disc	Digital. Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio
2008	slotMusic	Digital. Usually at 320kbit/s MP3 on microSD or microSDHC
	Blu-spec CD	Digital. PCM
2013	Pono	Digital.

See also

• Audio data compression
• Audio file format
• Format war

External links

• recording-history.org