How to Play FLAC Audio Files on Mac, Windows or *nix

Received a .flac audio file from someone? You might not be familiar with this file format and want to play it on your Mac. FLAC is a Free Lossless Audio Codec which is an exact copy of the original uncompressed audio file which is very high in quality. iTunes doesn’t support the FLAC audio format; you need to find another solution to play it. Fortunately, several other options can play .flac audio file. In this guide, you will see what FLAC file is and can we play FLAC file in iTunes or using a free open source audio player on Mac, Windows or *nix.

What is FLAC file

FLAC file is an Open-source audio file format that uses lossless audio compression; it also makes sure to keep all the original audio data without losing any sound quality. The advantage of using this Codec, you can reduce the file size to around half of its original size without losing the audio quality.

How to Play FLAC file on Mac

As already said iTunes doesn’t play the .flac audio file, so to play FLAC file we need to download VLC player for Mac. VLC is not the only option to play this file but its the best video and audio play that support tons for file formats.

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  1. Download and install VLC Player on your Mac; you can download it from the official website here.
    install vlc on macos
  2. Open the VLC player, drag and drop the audio file on the VLC player or click the menu File > “Open File” and then select the FLAC file that you want to play.
    play flac file macos

There is another good alternative to play FLAC is Clementine.

Play FLAC in iTunes macOS

There is no way to play FLAC in iTunes. But, I found a utility for iTunes called Fluke that can play .flac files. This plugin never updated since 2009 by the developer and wasn’t compatible with my macOS. You can check this Fluke utility.

Play FLAC file on Windows

If you have Microsoft Groove Music the default player on your Windows 10, then you can play .flac file easily. In case of MS Groove music isn’t installed, and you are using another Windows version that has default Windows Media Player. You need to install a plugin Xiph’s OpenCodec for Media Player or install separate VLC player for Windows.

play flac on windows

FLAC Players for *nix

There are dozens of options as FLAC players available for the Unix users. Download and install the package to play .flac file on *nix operating system. See the players options below:

AlsaPlayer, Amarok, Aqualung, a Linux player, aTunes, Beep Media Player, DisOrder: a multi-user software jukebox, flac-tools: includes flac123 player, Media Center FLAC plugins, MPD, Music Player Daemon, MPlayer, Muine: a music player for GNOME, ripperX: X-based ripper/encoder, Xine multimedia player, xmcd: X CD player,

3 comments… add one
daveclark966 August 24, 2019, 11:07 am

Avdshare audio converter is one professional FLAC to iTunes converter which can quickly and easily convert the FLAC file to iTunes supported MP3, M4A, AAC, AIFF or Apple Lossless.

daveclark966 July 22, 2021, 1:47 pm

you can use a professional FLAC to iPad converter – iDealshare VideoGo with which you can easily convert your FLAC file to your iPad model more supported MP3 file.

daveclark966 August 4, 2021, 12:17 pm

Avdshare Audio Converter can do this conversion work perfectly. Besides, many extra features are also developed with Avdshare Audio Converter, like converting other audio formats, editing your own audio format files, etc.

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