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What is an FLAC file?
Lossless compression for audiophiles: FLAC files are 40–60% smaller than WAV while keeping bit-perfect audio.
Pros
- Bit-perfect, lossless quality
- About half the size of WAV
- Great tag support
Cons
- Several times larger than MP3
- Not supported by some Apple apps
How to open FLAC files
VLC, foobar2000 and most music players open FLAC. If your device won't play it, convert it to MP3.
Is FLAC lossy or lossless?
FLAC is lossless: it preserves every sample of the original recording. FLAC compresses losslessly, like a ZIP file for audio.
When should you convert FLAC?
Lossless compression for audiophiles: FLAC files are 40–60% smaller than WAV while keeping bit-perfect audio. If the app or device you need doesn't accept FLAC, convert it to MP3 — the most widely supported alternative.
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FLAC at a glance
- Full name
- Free Lossless Audio Codec
- Developed by
- Xiph.Org Foundation
- Introduced
- 2001
- Contains
- FLAC (lossless)
- MIME type
- audio/flac
- Best for
- archiving CDs, hi-fi listening, music collections