MP3 is a lossy file format, and FLAC comes with none of the compression that can cause some MP3 files to sound distorted.įLAC is also not limited to 16-bit CD quality. Lossless file formats mean that you’re able to experience them in the purest form, the way they were created and intended to be played as. The main reason to convert your music collection to FLAC is for the upgrade in sound quality. To the untrained ear, the difference may not be very noticeable. However, to truly experience and appreciate the quality of FLAC, you’ll need a great set of speakers or headphones. Today, when you can find 128 GB flash drives for less than $10, file sizes are hardly a worry. So this might be the ideal solution: keep lossless files in your iTunes library, and use the matched or uploaded versions on your iOS devices.If you have a favorite mainstream artist, and even if your favorite artist is indie, there’s a very good chance that you can legally purchase their music as FLACs for the same price as you would MP3s.īack in the days of P2P file-sharing applications, such as Napster and LimeWire, FLAC was nowhere near as popular as MP3, due to its much larger file size. However, if you use the cloud to listen to files on the go, you don’t need them to be lossless, as I explained above. This means that your lossless files will never be in the cloud. If iTunes can’t match them and needs to upload them, iTunes converts them to 256kbps before uploading. If the files are matched, then they’re matched to the iTunes Store equivalents: files at 256kbps AAC. If your iTunes library contains lossless files, iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library treat them differently from other files. You may want to use iTunes Match or iCloud Music Library to keep your iTunes library in the cloud. Using iTunes Match or iCloud Music Library with lossless files This article for more on this conversion. While iTunes doesn’t support FLAC files, you can simply convert them to Apple Lossless, retaining the same quality. I mentioned above that you may have FLAC files that you’ve downloaded, either from websites where bands allow trading of live music or from vendors who sell lossless files in that format. Have iTunes convert your lossless files on the fly when syncing to your iOS devices. This setting tells iTunes to convert your lossless tracks on the fly when syncing to your iOS device. I use 256kbps, but you can also choose 128 or 192. In the Options section, check Convert higher bit rate songs to, and choose a bit rate. Connect your iOS device, select it, and then click on Summary. And these files take up a lot of space on a device that has a limited amount of storage.įortunately, iTunes lets you have the best of both options. You won’t hear any difference in sound quality over the ambient background noise, and on headphones that are certainly not as good as those you use at home. However, if you’re listening on the go-on an iPhone, with headphones, or streamed to a portable speaker-there’s little advantage to using lossless files. Also, if you rip to lossless, you’ll have archival files, which you can later convert to any format without needing to re-rip your CDs. And lossless files sound exactly like CDs, so you’ll have the best quality for your home listening. So if you have a large music collection, you’ll need a bigger hard drive (or more than one). But why use lossless files? What’s the advantage?Īs you’ve seen above, lossless files take up a lot more space. You may also have some FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files you’ve downloaded they’re very common. You have the option to rip your CDs to Apple Lossless format. While you can tag WAV and AIFF files in iTunes, not all of these tags remain in the files if you move from your iTunes library to another computer or device. Not only do they take up a lot of space, but tags-metadata you add to the files-aren’t supported as well as with the other formats. Note that it’s generally not a good idea to use AIFF or WAV files in your iTunes library.
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