Audio Interchange File Format (compressed)

Writable

audio

The Audio Interchange File Format, Compressed (AIFF-C) provides a standard for storing uncompressed or compressed sampled sounds. The format can store monaural or multichannel sampled sounds in a range of sample rates and sample widths. The format is extensible to handle new compression types and application-specific data.

Identify it

Extensions	`.aifc`
MIME types	`audio/x-aiffaudio/aiff`
Signatures	`464f524d` at byte 0 (Audio Interchange File Format (Compressed))
PRONOM	`x-fmt/136`
Wikidata	`Q27863260`

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Open it

libsndfileOpen sourcereads and writes · GNU Lesser General Public License
cdparanoiaOpen sourcewrites · GNU General Public License
FFmpegOpen sourcereads and writes · LGPL-2.1-or-later / GPL-2.0-or-later
Free Lossless Audio CodecOpen sourcereads and writes · 3-clause BSD License / GNU General Public License, version 2.0 / GNU Library General Public License, version 2.0
Q141647665Open sourcewrites · Apache Software License 2.0 / MIT License
Q141674392Open sourcereads and writes · Apache Software License 2.0 / MIT License
Q191782Open sourcereads and writes · GNU General Public License, version 3.0
SoXOpen sourcereads and writes · GNU General Public License
Apache TikaOpen sourcereads · Apache Software License 2.0
ExifToolOpen sourcereads · Artistic License / GNU General Public License, version 1.0 or later
JHOVEOpen sourcereads · GNU Lesser General Public License
Kid3Open sourcereads · GNU General Public License / GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later
Music on ConsoleOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
mutagenOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 2.0
PhotoRecOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
Q117725Open sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 2.0
Q1576579Open sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later
Q3898244Open sourcereads · BSD licenses / GNU General Public License / GNU Lesser General Public License
SweepOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
The Freesound ProjectOpen sourcereads · Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported / Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported / Creative Commons CC0 License
VLC media playerOpen sourcereads · GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 or later
Adobe Acrobat 9 Proreads and writes
Adobe Auditionwrites
EZ CD Audio Converterreads and writes
GarageBandreads and writes
Mathematicareads and writes · proprietary license
Sound Forge XP 3.0reads and writes
Sound Forge XP Studioreads and writes
Awave Studioreads
Ableton Livereads · proprietary license
Absynthreads
ACD FotoCanvas Litereads
ACDSee 5reads
ACID XPressreads
Adobe After Effectsreads · proprietary license
Adobe Encorereads
Adobe Premiere 5.1reads
Adobe Premiere 6.0reads
Adobe Premiere Proreads · proprietary license
AIMP 3.5reads

And 35 more in the JSON record.

Convert it

To	With	Fidelity	Command and losses
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) 1.2.1	FFmpeg	Lossless	`ffmpeg -i in.aiff out.flac` Lossless for decoded audio; a lossy source stays as degraded as it was. WAV may reduce bit depth or drop metadata.
Waveform Audio	FFmpeg	Lossless	`ffmpeg -i in.aiff out.wav` Lossless for decoded audio; a lossy source stays as degraded as it was. WAV may reduce bit depth or drop metadata.
Matroska 1-4	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.aiff out.mkv` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.aiff out.mp3` Lossy re-encoding.
MPEG-4 Part 14	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.aiff out.mp4` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
Ogg	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.aiff out.ogg` Lossy re-encoding.
WebM	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.aiff out.webm` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.

Sources

From PRONOM, Wikidata. Updated 2026-10-20.

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