You may need to convert FLAC files in order to get them to play on your computer or portable audio device. FLAC is the newest form of digital audio, but it’s not yet supported by many devices. However, you can get around that problem by converting FLAC files to more universal formats, such as MP3.

What is a FLAC file?
“FLAC” stands for “Free Lossless Audio Codec.” It is similar to the MP3 format, but the FLAC files are compressed, taking up less virtual space without sacrificing sound quality. Currently, very few devices support FLAC files, so it would be beneficial to use data file conversion to switch FLAC to MP3.

Do I need to get special software to convert a FLAC file into an MP3?
You don’t have to download anything. You can try programs you probably already have on your computer: WinAMP and iTunes. What you’re going to do is take your FLAC downloads, convert them to WAV files using WinAMP and then convert them to MP3 files using iTunes.

The first step is to open WinAMP. Go to Options on the toolbar, and select Preferences. Click the Output on the scroll down menu on the left side of the new window. Now highlight Nullsoft Disk Writer, and click Configure. Now select a directory for saving the files, and click OK. Once that is complete, go to File, and select Play. Choose any FLAC files you want converted. When you click Play, WinAMP will now encode these files as WAV files and save them in the directory you specified.

Now it’s on to iTunes. Select Edit on the toolbar, and choose Preferences. From the General tab, click on the Import Settings button located about halfway down the page. Now select MP3 Encoder from the drop down menu. Return to the iTunes front screen, and select File from the toolbar. Click Add Folder to Library option, and select the folder where you saved the WAV files. This should import the WAV files to iTunes. Highlight all the WAV files, and right-click to open the drop down menu. Select Create MP3 Version from the menu.

What do I do with the WAV files I just made?
Once the MP3 files are created, you can delete the WAV files from your iTunes and from your computer. WAV files take up a lot of space, so there’s no reason to keep them around when you have FLAC and MP3 versions of the same song. Remember, never download pirated music, and get your digital audio from reputable retailers only.