View source for Monkey's Audio

{{Short description|Open-source lossless audio codec}}
{{distinguish|text=[[MediaMonkey]], an unrelated digital media player and media library application}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox file format
| name          = Monkey's Audio
| icon          =
| logo          =
| extension     = .ape
| mime          =
| type code     =
| uniform type  =
| magic         =
| owner         =
| genre         = 
| container for =
| contained by  =
| extended from =
| extended to   =
| standard      = {{URL|https://www.monkeysaudio.com/developers.html}}
| open          = Yes
| free          = Yes
}}
{{Infobox software
| name = Monkey's Audio
| screenshot = Monkey's Audio 7.34 software on Windows screenshot.webp
| caption = Screenshot of Monkey's Audio software on Windows successfully verifying .ape files
| developer = Matthew T. Ashland
| released = {{Start date and age|df=yes|2000}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q1064017|P348}}
| latest release date = {{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q1064017|P348|P577}}
| genre = [[Audio compression (data)|Audio compression]]
| license = [https://www.monkeysaudio.com/license.html The 3-Clause BSD Licence]
| website = [https://www.monkeysaudio.com/ www.monkeysaudio.com]
}}

'''Monkey's Audio''' is an algorithm and [[file format]] for [[lossless data compression|lossless]] [[audio data compression]]. Lossless data compression does not discard data during the process of encoding, unlike [[lossy compression]] methods such as [[Advanced Audio Coding]], [[MP3]], [[Vorbis]], and [[Opus (audio format)|Opus]]. Similar to other lossless audio codecs, files encoded to Monkey's Audio are typically reduced to about half of the original size,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Lossless_comparison#Comparison_Table |title=Lossless comparison: Comparison table |date=2022 |website=Hydrogen Audio |access-date=2022-10-08 |archive-date=8 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008031808/https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Lossless_comparison#Comparison_Table |url-status=live }}</ref> with data transfer time and storage requirements being reduced accordingly.

==Comparisons==
Like any lossless compression scheme, Monkey's Audio format takes up several times as much space as lossy compression formats - typically, about twice as much as a 320 [[kbit/s]] [[Bit rate|bitrate]] MP3 file. The upside is that no data is lost compared to the input file, making lossless codecs suitable for transcoding, or simply taking up approximately half as much space as raw PCM data.

Relative to [[FLAC]], [[Apple Lossless Audio Codec]], or [[WavPack]], Monkey's Audio is slow to encode or decode files.

While Monkey's Audio can achieve high compression ratios,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.audiograaf.nl/losslesstest/Lossless%20audio%20codec%20comparison%20-%20revision%204.pdf |title=Lossless Audio Codec Comparison (Revision 4) |last=van Beurden |first=Martijn |date=2015-01-04 |access-date=2022-10-08 |format=PDF}}</ref> the cost is a dramatic increase in requirements on the decoding end. Many older portable media players, and even older smartphones, have difficulty handling this. In comparison, most lossless codecs are asymmetric, meaning that the work done to achieve higher compression ratios, if selected by the user, slows down the encoding process, but has essentially no effect on the decoding requirements.<ref name="rockbox">{{cite web |url=https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SoundCodecMonkeysAudio |title=SoundCodecMonkeysAudio < Main < Wiki |publisher=Rockbox.org |date=2021-04-02 |access-date=2022-10-08 |archive-date=20 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220820063620/https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SoundCodecMonkeysAudio |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Licensing==

On 10 August 2023, with the release of version 10.18, Monkey's Audio switched to the [[Open Source Initiative]]-approved [[BSD_licenses#3-clause_license_(%22BSD_License_2.0%22,_%22Revised_BSD_License%22,_%22New_BSD_License%22,_or_%22Modified_BSD_License%22)|3-Clause BSD Licence]].<ref name="ver">{{cite web|url=https://www.monkeysaudio.com/versionhistory.html |title=Monkey's Audio version history |publisher=Monkeysaudio.com |date=2023-08-10 |access-date=2023-08-24}}</ref>

Other lossless codecs such as FLAC and WavPack are also available under open source licences, and are well supported in [[Linux distribution|Linux distributions]] and in many applications. Since all of these formats are lossless, users can transcode between formats without [[generation loss]].

==Supported platforms==
Officially, Monkey's Audio is available for the [[Microsoft Windows]] platform. As of version 4.02 (19 January 2009) a [[DirectShow]] filter is distributed with the installer, allowing for compatibility with most media players running on the Windows operating system.<ref name="ver"/>

Monkey's Audio is also supported on Linux and OS X using [[JRiver Media Center]] or [[Plex (software)|Plex]].

A GPL-licensed version of the Monkey's Audio decoder has been independently written for Rockbox and is included in [[FFmpeg]].<ref name="ubuntu">{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Sebastian |date=2007-06-25 |title=Ubuntu bug entry about Monkey's audio inclusion (Comment 2) |url=https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/119412/comments/2 |access-date=2022-10-08 |archive-date=8 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008034100/https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/119412/comments/2 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ffmpeg">{{cite web |url=https://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-0.5.changelog |title=FFmpeg 0.5 changelog |date=2009 |website=FFmpeg |access-date=2022-10-08}}
</ref> This code also provides playback support in applications that use [[GStreamer]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/modules/gst-monkeysaudio.html |title=GStreamer Monkey's Audio Plug-in |access-date=2022-10-08 |website=GStreamer}}</ref> as well as [[DeaDBeeF]].

A number of {{nowrap|Mac OS X}} players and rippers support the format as well.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pure-mac.com/audio.html |title=Audio - Software for Mac |publisher=Pure Mac |access-date=2022-10-08 |archive-date=28 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128232834/https://www.pure-mac.com/audio.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
It is also available as a port and package on [[FreeBSD]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.freshports.org/audio/mac/ |title=FreshPorts -- audio/mac: Monkey's Audio lossless codec |website=FreshPorts |access-date=2022-10-08 |archive-date=29 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229033754/https://www.freshports.org/audio/mac/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Monkey's Audio files can be encoded and decoded on any platform which has a [[Java Platform, Standard Edition|J2SE]] implementation, by the means of the unofficial [https://jmac.sourceforge.net/ JMAC library], which is [[free software]] licensed under the [[GNU Lesser General Public License|GNU LGPL]].

===Hardware support===

Monkey's Audio is supported natively on all modern [[Cowon]] multimedia media players, the [[FiiO X Series]] and some [[Cayin]] digital audio players.

On other hardware platforms, the open source firmware project [[Rockbox]] supports playback of Monkey's Audio files on most of its supported targets, but many lack sufficient processing power to play them on the higher compression settings.<ref name=rockbox/>

==See also==
*[[Comparison of audio formats]]
*[[FLAC]]
*[[WavPack]]
*[[Apple Lossless]]
*[[MPEG-4 ALS]]
*[[Meridian Lossless Packing]]
*[[APE tag]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.monkeysaudio.com/ Monkey's Audio] Official Website
*[http://www.apeplayer.com/ APE Player] Play Monkey's Audio files

{{Compression formats}}
{{Compression software implementations}}

[[Category:Lossless audio codecs]]
[[Category:Software that uses GStreamer]]
[[Category:Software using the BSD license]]