[Ringfinger]

I have a bunch of FLAC files I would like to use in iTunes. What is the best way to do this?

[Karenkcoulter]

They have to be converted to mp3, apple lossless, or m4a. Apparently there's something you can do to modify iTunes to support it as well. See this discussion:

[Ringfinger]

I'll take a peek.

[Ringfinger]

I took a look and see a converter called Bigasoft FLAC. It says to convert from FALC to M4A. This keeps it loss less, correct? I used to convert WAV's to AAC for Apple, but I guess M4A is is equivalent/better?

[Karenkcoulter]

M4A is not lossless. It's just a more modern version of mp3. Basically it is "mpeg 4 audio" just as mp3 is "mpeg 3". M4A is very similar to AAC.

[Karenkcoulter]

Apple Lossless is the only lossless compression protocol iTunes currently supports. Supposedly you can hack iTunes to play FLAC as I linked to above. But I've never done it myself.

[Ringfinger]

I don't need it to play it, I need to convert from FLAC to another lossless format that iTunes can play. How do I do that? The instructions say:

From "General Audio" (in the program I am downloading) category, choose ALAC - Apple Lossless Audio Codec(*.m4a) as the output profile.

[Karenkcoulter]

Yes you want ALAC if you want it to remain lossless. I wasn't aware that ALAC files also use the m4a extension since I don't have any lossless files myself.

[Ringfinger]

Prob;em solved, thanks as always!

[Ringfinger]

Well, the Bigasoft program cuts off songs at 5 minutes unless you pay for a copy of the program. Anyone know of a totally free converter that can convert FLAC to ALAC?

[Retconaddict]

Are you using a mac? If so, Max works well. Free and will convert your songs in their entirety, even to apple lossless. Not sure if there's a windows version.

[PhoneAddict]

I Used DB Poweramp to convert files from FLAC to Apple Lossless.

[Ringfinger]

I have a PC. I ended up downloading Bigasoft and it has been simple and works great.