It is a common audio format for consumer audio streaming or storage and a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on most digital audio players. MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is an audio coding format for digital audio that uses lossy data compression. However, the use of RA for online streaming has declined in recent years as other technologies have been developed. RA format is also one that allows audio to be streamed online.

The low-bitrate formats are commonly used for older dial-up modems.

Those codecs range from the high fidelity type for music and can also go all the way down to low-bitrate formats. This is an audio format that makes use of various audio codecs. RealNetworks developed the RA file format.