Where to Find FLAC Music

A lot of audiophiles are familiar with the FLAC file type for music. It’s a natural progression from MP3 and if you download your music from sites like Bandcamp, you’ll see that there are a lot of artists offering FLAC files, which stands for “Free Lossless Audio Codec.” The difference is that it is a lossless file. When a FLAC is encoded, you don’t lose vital data like you do in an MP3 file, which is lossy. This means that FLAC files give a true representation of the original audio and even supports higher bit depths and sample rates, and even immersive and surround sound formats. So, where can you find FLAC music?

Immersive Audio Album

If you are looking for immersive audio carried by the FLAC format, look no further than our store at Immersive Audio Album. We have a huge selection of immersive audio in the lossless FLAC format. IAA allows you to choose which types of files you want to download, and supports Auro-3D FLAC files as well as MP4 and WAV formats. You can ensure you have the lossless, high definition audio you need. Bandcamp Bandcamp puts the artist or band in charge. There are hundreds of releases on Bandcamp every single day, and it is a great way for bands and their fans to connect. One of the file types it supports is FLAC, meaning you can buy and download in lossless formats. Not every release on Bandcamp has a FLAC option, so it can be hit and miss. It boils down to whether the artist has decided to upload a FLAC and make it available for download. Many do, knowing that Bandcamp has a decent audiophile following.

HDTracks

HDTracks, as the name suggests, is all about high resolution and high definition music, and they carry a lot of releases in 24 bit, 96 kHz files, many of which are lossless in the FLAC or WAV format. Unlike Bandcamp, HDTracks is pretty reliable when it comes to offering the biggest releases and HD downloads of back catalogs from popular artists.

Qobuz

Qobuz is a fascinating idea and a great way to access huge amounts of music in HD FLAC files. It offers streaming in FLAC 24-Bit up to 192 kHz, and their catalog includes an incredible 80 million tracks. It’s a bit more expensive as a monthly payment than the likes of Apple Music and Spotify, and with Apple Music introducing more lossless audio all the time, it might not be necessary to get a Qobuz membership, but the site still has a thriving fanbase.

Band Websites

It is worth going directly to the band website to check what they offer. Many bands and artists offer FLAC downloads from their site. There are certain types of bands and artists who know that HD audio is going to appeal more to their fanbase. Finding FLAC format audio is definitely getting easier as more people realise the quality it offers and downloading and streaming bigger files becomes much more straightforward.

About the Author

Ben is a writer and musician from the UK with a background in music technology. He writes about engineering and production, musicianship and music equipment for a number of publications including his site, Subreel.