Details: File format summary

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Properties

Summary
Name	Atrac Codec File
Version	v.1
Other names
Identifiers	PUID: fmt/1968
Family
Classification	Audio
Disclosure
Description	ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) is a family of proprietary audio compression algorithms developed by Sony. It was first commercially used in the MiniDisc in 1992. ATRAC enabled the storage of audio information on quite small devices (for the time), with limited loss is perceptible quality.
Orientation
Byte order
Related file formats	None.
Technical Environment
Released
Supported until
Format Risk
Developed by	Sony / Sony
Supported by	None.
Source	Bibliotheque Cantonale Universitaire de Fribourg / Bibliotheque Cantonale Universitaire de Fribourg
Source date	21 Mar 2024
Source description	v.121: amended internal signature, added links to blogs. Brigham Young University.
Last updated	21 Jul 2025
Note	A useful blog on the format can be found here: https://preservation.tylerthorsted.com/2024/09/06/atrac/ Submissions: https://github.com/digital-preservation/PRONOM_Research/issues/70 https://github.com/thorsted/PRONOM_Research/tree/main/Submissions/ATRAC