Vorbis
Vorbis is an open-source, patent-free audio compression format and codec designed for efficient, high-quality audio streaming and storage. It uses a psychoacoustic model to reduce file sizes while maintaining perceptual audio quality, often outperforming MP3 at similar bitrates. Developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, it is commonly used in conjunction with the Ogg container format as Ogg Vorbis.
Developers should learn Vorbis when building audio applications that require open, royalty-free compression for streaming, gaming, or multimedia projects, as it avoids patent licensing fees. It is ideal for use cases like web audio, podcasts, and video game soundtracks where high fidelity and small file sizes are priorities, such as in HTML5 audio or game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine.