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MP3 vs FLAC
FLAC is lossless and about half the size of WAV; MP3 is smaller still and is not.
Choose MP3 when
Portable listening, streaming, and anywhere storage or bandwidth is the constraint.
Choose FLAC when
Archiving a collection, or any library you may want to re-encode later. FLAC is bit-for-bit identical to the source and can be converted onward without a second loss.
The thing that catches people out
A FLAC made from an MP3 is not a better MP3. It preserves exactly what the MP3 had left, at several times the size.
Side by side
| MP3 | FLAC | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | MPEG Audio Layer III | Free Lossless Audio Codec |
| Extension | .mp3 | .flac |
| Media type | audio/mpeg | audio/flac |
| Compression | Lossy — file size is bought with quality | Lossless — nothing is discarded |
| This site can write it | Yes | Yes |