Editing Audio file format (section)

{{Short description|Computer format for digital audio}}

[[File:Audio formats.jpg|thumb|Audio file icons of various formats]]

An '''audio file format''' is a [[file format]] for storing [[digital audio]] data on a [[computer]] system. The bit layout of the audio data (excluding [[metadata]]) is called the [[audio coding format]] and can be uncompressed, or [[audio compression (data)|compressed]] to reduce the file size, often using [[lossy compression]]. The data can be a raw [[bitstream]] in an audio coding format, but it is usually embedded in a [[container format]] or an audio data format with defined storage layer.