FLAC FILE FORMAT

Free Lossless Audio Codec

Audio

Xiph.Org Foundation; Josh Coalson and Erik de Castro Lopo

FLAC is short for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It was created in 2001 by the Xiph.Org Foundation but didn’t have a stable release until 2019. FLAC is useful when you want to compress audio without losing quality. But, like other high-quality formats, files with FLAC specifications can be huge. If your device doesn’t have much storage space, you might have problems maintaining a collection of FLAC files. Despite its popularity, media players like iTunes and QuickTime still don’t support audio playback of the FLAC format, and many mobile apps cannot decode it. You may want to consider converting your FLAC files to the more widely supported MP3 format to be on the safe side. Check the table below if you want to know how to open FLAC audio tracks and which programs can play them.

.flac

Although FLAC files are compressed, they are of the same quality as the source audio. The audio files in lossy formats like MP3 or AAC have slightly worse sound quality than those of lossless formats. However, the difference may be almost undetectable if the lossy file has a high bitrate. Another feature of the FLAC file type is that it uses IDv1 and IDv3 tags. This allows the user to arrange their audio collection according to taste, changing the original track metadata.

Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, VLC, and others