Lossy Audio Formats: These are based on sound models which eliminate audio data such humans cannot or can hardly hear, for example: a low volume sound after a large volume sound. MP3 and Vorbis both are popular illustrations. lossy audio file formats is MP3 i.e. one of the most admired, that uses the MPEG-1 audio layer 3 codec to give acceptable lossy compression for music files. The compression is around 10:1 as compared to uncompressed WAV files as in a standard compression scheme, thus a CD along with MP3 files can store around as 11 hours of music, compared to 74 minutes of the standard CDDA that uses uncompressed PCM.

Various newer lossy audio formats and codecs are there claiming to attain enhanced compression and quality over MP3. Vorbis is free codec and an unpatented.