What is a FLAC File?

Many different formats dot the landscape of personal digital audio. Most are compressed, "lossy" formats, which means they achieve small file sizes at the expense of at least some audio quality. Lossy formats include MP3, OGG, and AAC. Others are lossless formats, which means they retain all of the sound quality of the original source, such as a Compact Disc. With the proliferation of high-speed Internet and ever-larger hard drives, lossless audio is gaining in popularity. FLAC is one of the most popular types of lossless audio file.

Name

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. FLAC is open source, so there are no patent considerations that sometimes make working with other formats difficult. For instance, even the industry-standard lossy MP3 format can be inconvenient to encode into because of patent concerns.

File Size

FLAC files can achieve file sizes of less than 50% of the original source, with 100% of the same audio quality. The FLAC codec employs lossless data compression to achieve a much smaller file size than, say, the popular lossless WAV format.

Encoding

Many software programs exist that allow for encoding in the FLAC format--some out of the box, others with additional plugins. A few good programs that support FLAC are listed below.

For Windows, Audacity will encode into FLAC natively. Winamp and winLAME are excellent programs that will create FLAC files with added plugins.

For Mac OS X, Switch Sound File Converter is a good, free program that will convert into FLAC.

For Linux, Sound Converter can encode into FLAC without any additional plugins.

Music Players

Many programs are built to handle FLAC, both natively and with plugins. Some good options are listed below.

For Windows, Winamp, VLC Media Player, and Audacity all play FLAC out of the box. Windows Media Player will play FLAC with a third-party plugin.

For Mac OS X, VLC Media Player and Cog both play FLAC files.

For Linux, Amarok and RhythmBox both support FLAC natively.

Personal Digital Audio Players

FLAC has limited support on personal digital audio players. For instance, iPods will not play FLAC files. Players that can handle FLACs include some of the products in the following lines: Cowon iAudio, SanDisk Sansa, Rio Karma, and iRiver E100.

Consumers should double-check FLAC compatibility before buying any digital audio player, if they consider it a necessity.

Metadata

FLAC supports meta tags, allowing users to include artist, song, and album names, track numbers, genres, dates, and so on, which can then be displayed by music player software or personal digital audio players.

History

FLAC's principal author, Josh Coalson, created the codec in 1999, basing it on concepts he gleaned from the lossless Shorten (SHN) format.