Audio FFmpeg Formats

Audio formats and codecs take much less resources and space than video ones, so they are often used without compression for maximum quality. However these are compressed formats and codecs widely used in streaming and sharing.

High Quality

FLAC

Open; used for storing music. It has lossless compression.
preset: flac

PCM

Raw format that encodes the signal with modified pulse modulation (pcm). FFmpeg does not support pcm audio if you use mp4 as a container.
Presets: s8, s16, s24, s32

WAV

Raw format created by Microsoft. 32-bit addressing leading to the 4 GB recording limit. It is a widely used standard.
Presets: s24le, s32le

W64

Wave format created by Sony to override the 4GB recording limit. Poorly supported.
Presets: s16le, s24le, s32le

MKA

Open, highly configurable and documented. It belongs to the Matroska family. Uncompressed pcm type.
Presets: s16le, s24le, s32le

ALAC

Apple's codec, free to use but not open source. It is lossless and of high quality but is slower than other similar codecs.
Presets: m4a, mkv, qt

General Purpose

MP3

Belongs to the MPEG family. The most widely used in streaming and sharing.
preset: mp3

OGG

Open, highly configurable and documented. It belongs to the Matroska family. Flac has lossless compression; opus is compressed but modern and of good quality, superior to mp3. Vorbis is compressed and dated, but lightweight and compatible.
Presets: flac, opus, vorbis

PRO

Created by Apple; compressed audio codec, competing with mp3.
Presets: aac256k