FLAC

Overview

FLAC compresses audio without losing information, so playback is bit-for-bit identical to the source while files are much smaller than WAV. It is open, widely supported in modern players, and popular for music archives and lossless streaming.

Typical use cases

• Music archives
• Lossless streaming
• Audiophile libraries
• Archival audio masters

Advantages

• Designed for music archives
• Lossless storage
• Open specification
• Browser support: Most modern browsers

Disadvantages

• Larger than lossy files
• Older hardware support varies
• Metadata support is not universal

How to open or use it

Open FLAC files with an application that supports audio/flac. Full editing with lossless round-trip. For delivery, use a viewer or converter that reads flac.