Audio Compression Types
Lossless
50% Compression
✓ Preserves all original audio data
✓ Perfect audio reproduction
✓ Larger file sizes (FLAC, ALAC, WAV)
✓ Ideal for archiving and production
Lossy
10-30% Original Size
✓ Discards less perceptible data
✓ Some quality loss
✓ Much smaller files (MP3, AAC, Opus)
✓ Ideal for streaming and storage
The key difference: Lossless retains all audio data, while lossy permanently removes some to reduce file size.