RA is an audio format developed by RealNetworks to use in its RealPlayer for streaming audio which means that it can be played while downloading. It uses several audio codecs, they range from the ones for delivering high-fidelity sound to those for recording low bitrate audio data. Although, the format was pretty popular and was used by many radio station to stream online, now it is technically inferior to other newer formats.

This format was originally intended for voice compression and is able to change the bit rates of encoded audio data. AMR is actively used for encoding and decoding voice while its being transmitted over network channels. The format allows one to consider network capacity and adapt it to channel loads. Due to this, the voice quality is practically undiminished.