{
 "id": "flac-free-lossless-audio-codec-1-2-1",
 "name": "FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)",
 "category": "audio",
 "identifiers": {
  "extensions": [
   "flac"
  ],
  "mime": [
   "audio/x-flac",
   "audio/flac"
  ],
  "puid": [
   "fmt/279"
  ],
  "wikidata": [
   "Q27881556",
   "Q131481410"
  ],
  "loc_fdd": [
   "fdd000198"
  ],
  "magic": [
   {
    "offset": 0,
    "hex": "664c6143"
   },
   {
    "offset": 0,
    "hex": "664c614300000022"
   }
  ],
  "signatures": [
   {
    "name": "FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)",
    "sequences": [
     {
      "position": "bof",
      "offset": 0,
      "max_offset": 4,
      "pattern": "664c6143(80|00)000022"
     }
    ]
   }
  ]
 },
 "status": "writable",
 "summary": "FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. The basic structure of a FLAC stream is: •The four byte string \"fLaC\" •The STREAMINFO metadata block •Zero or more other metadata blocks •One or more audio frames The first four bytes are to identify the FLAC stream. The metadata that follows contains all the information about the stream except for the audio data itself. After the metadata comes the encoded audio data.",
 "tools": [
  {
   "name": "FFmpeg",
   "url": "https://ffmpeg.org",
   "license": "LGPL-2.1-or-later / GPL-2.0-or-later",
   "open_source": true,
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true
  },
  {
   "name": "FFmpeg (WebAssembly)",
   "url": "https://github.com/ffmpegwasm/ffmpeg.wasm",
   "license": "GPL-2.0-or-later",
   "open_source": true,
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Audify Music Player",
   "url": "https://audifyplayer.com/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "proprietary license"
  },
  {
   "name": "EasyTAG",
   "url": "https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/EasyTAG",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Elisa",
   "url": "https://apps.kde.org/elisa/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3.0",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Ex Falso",
   "url": "https://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Free Lossless Audio Codec",
   "url": "https://xiph.org/flac",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true,
   "license": "3-clause BSD License / GNU General Public License, version 2.0 / GNU Library General Public License, version 2.0",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Graveman",
   "url": "http://graveman.tuxfamily.org/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Jaikoz",
   "url": "http://jthink.net/jaikoz/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "JetAudio",
   "url": "http://www.jetaudio.com/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "Liquidsoap",
   "url": "https://www.liquidsoap.info/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License, version 2.0",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "mutagen",
   "url": "https://mutagen.readthedocs.io/en/latest/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License, version 2.0",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "PhotoRec",
   "url": "http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Praat",
   "url": "https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false
  },
  {
   "name": "Puddletag",
   "url": "http://docs.puddletag.net/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Q117725",
   "url": "https://picard.musicbrainz.org",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License, version 2.0",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Q141674392",
   "url": "https://getartcraft.com/apps/soundcraft",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true,
   "license": "Apache Software License 2.0 / MIT License",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Q1576579",
   "url": "https://www.mixxx.org/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Q191782",
   "url": "https://www.audacityteam.org/",
   "reads": false,
   "writes": true,
   "license": "GNU General Public License, version 3.0",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Q201809",
   "url": "https://lmms.io/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License, version 2.0",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Q300915",
   "url": "https://www.foobar2000.org/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "freeware"
  },
  {
   "name": "Q6928182",
   "url": "http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": true,
   "license": "GNU General Public License",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "Rubyripper",
   "url": "http://code.google.com/p/rubyripper",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU General Public License",
   "open_source": true
  },
  {
   "name": "thousand tunes player",
   "url": "http://music.taihe.com/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "proprietary license"
  },
  {
   "name": "VLC media player",
   "url": "https://www.videolan.org/vlc/",
   "reads": true,
   "writes": false,
   "license": "GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 or later",
   "open_source": true
  }
 ],
 "projects": [
  {
   "name": "File Formats Wiki",
   "url": "http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/FLAC",
   "kind": "wiki"
  },
  {
   "name": "PRONOM fmt/279",
   "url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/fmt/279",
   "kind": "format-doc"
  },
  {
   "name": "Wikidata Q131481410",
   "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q131481410",
   "kind": "wiki"
  }
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "sources": [
   "converters",
   "engines",
   "ffw",
   "pronom",
   "wikidata"
  ]
 },
 "updated": "2026-10-25",
 "version": "1.2.1",
 "conversions": [
  {
   "to": "waveform-audio",
   "tool": "FFmpeg",
   "command": "ffmpeg -i in.flac out.wav",
   "fidelity": "lossless",
   "losses": "Lossless for decoded audio; a lossy source stays as degraded as it was. WAV may reduce bit depth or drop metadata.",
   "url": "https://ffmpeg.org"
  },
  {
   "to": "mpeg-1-2-audio-layer-3",
   "tool": "FFmpeg",
   "command": "ffmpeg -i in.flac out.mp3",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "Lossy re-encoding.",
   "url": "https://ffmpeg.org"
  },
  {
   "to": "ogg",
   "tool": "FFmpeg",
   "command": "ffmpeg -i in.flac out.ogg",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "Lossy re-encoding.",
   "url": "https://ffmpeg.org"
  },
  {
   "to": "mpeg-4-part-14",
   "tool": "FFmpeg",
   "command": "ffmpeg -i in.flac out.mp4",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.",
   "url": "https://ffmpeg.org"
  },
  {
   "to": "matroska-1-4",
   "tool": "FFmpeg",
   "command": "ffmpeg -i in.flac out.mkv",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.",
   "url": "https://ffmpeg.org"
  },
  {
   "to": "webm",
   "tool": "FFmpeg",
   "command": "ffmpeg -i in.flac out.webm",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.",
   "url": "https://ffmpeg.org"
  },
  {
   "to": "mpeg-1-2-audio-layer-3",
   "tool": "FFmpeg (WebAssembly)",
   "command": "In the browser at https://openformatdb.org/convert/, or convert_file in the OpenFormatDB MCP server",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "Lossy re-encoding.",
   "url": "https://openformatdb.org/convert/",
   "engine": "ffmpeg"
  },
  {
   "to": "waveform-audio",
   "tool": "FFmpeg (WebAssembly)",
   "command": "In the browser at https://openformatdb.org/convert/, or convert_file in the OpenFormatDB MCP server",
   "fidelity": "lossless",
   "losses": "Lossless for decoded audio; a lossy source stays as degraded as it was.",
   "url": "https://openformatdb.org/convert/",
   "engine": "ffmpeg"
  },
  {
   "to": "ogg",
   "tool": "FFmpeg (WebAssembly)",
   "command": "In the browser at https://openformatdb.org/convert/, or convert_file in the OpenFormatDB MCP server",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "Lossy re-encoding.",
   "url": "https://openformatdb.org/convert/",
   "engine": "ffmpeg"
  },
  {
   "to": "ogg-opus-codec-compressed-multimedia-file",
   "tool": "FFmpeg (WebAssembly)",
   "command": "In the browser at https://openformatdb.org/convert/, or convert_file in the OpenFormatDB MCP server",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "Lossy re-encoding.",
   "url": "https://openformatdb.org/convert/",
   "engine": "ffmpeg"
  },
  {
   "to": "advanced-audio-coding",
   "tool": "FFmpeg (WebAssembly)",
   "command": "In the browser at https://openformatdb.org/convert/, or convert_file in the OpenFormatDB MCP server",
   "fidelity": "lossy",
   "losses": "Lossy re-encoding.",
   "url": "https://openformatdb.org/convert/",
   "engine": "ffmpeg"
  }
 ],
 "aliases": [],
 "structure": [],
 "parsers": [],
 "samples": [],
 "claims": [],
 "verification": []
}