Vorbis

Vorbis is an open-source, patent-free audio compression specification created by the Xiph.org Foundation. It is part of Xiph's Ogg project to create a complete open-source multimedia format.

Vorbis is a compression method, not a file format. Vorbis streams must be encapsulated in a bitstream which provides framing and seeking capabilities. By far the most common bitstream is Ogg; however, in principle any encapsulation could be used. For example, it is possible to embed Vorbis streams in AVI files.

Ogg Vorbis files usually have the extension .ogg. They are supported by many media players, including XMMS and Winamp.