Playing FLAC files in iTunes & Lion

1. Even if ainflorida was talking about OSX's quarantine, his statement is still false.

2. I'm an audiophile. So, I'm not unfamiliar with the merits of better audio quality.

3. It's clearly frustrating to you that iTunes and iOS devices don't support FLAC. But like it or not, Apple obviously has reasons for not doing so. Who knows what those reasons are, but possible reasons are mentioned above (and are available via google search).

That said, it's been argued that the Apple Lossless format is better than FLAC, anyway. So, while it involves an extra step, just convert your FLAC files to Apple Lossless, ditch the FLAC files, and move on. No one's forcing you to keep both formats, and no one's forcing you to share only FLAC files. Progress happens. If Apple Lossless is more efficient, encourage your friends to start using it and move away from FLAC. Or not.

Or convert them to WAV or AIF, which iTunes does play. Yes, they take up more space, but these are all options for you to consider. Each has pros and cons.

X Lossless Decoder reads/converts FLAC (and other formats) and is free:

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23430/x-lossless-decoder

4. Finally, the trading you do is illegal. (But of course you don't care about that.)

Have fun, guys...

For all your ranting, you still fail to address the main point: That there appear to be no good reasons for Apple not to build simple FLAC support into iTunes.

Al_de_Baran wrote:

For all your ranting, you still fail to address the main point: That there appear to be no good reasons for Apple not to build simple FLAC support into iTunes.

If you truly believe that no possible reasons were mentioned, you have a reading-comprehension problem. Best of luck.

There is also absolutely no reason why any of you that are complaining about the lack of a one-click flac support solution which would violate apples agreements with digital media publishers, can't write such a solution themselves. In fact, the options for such a conversion tool, are free in some cases, and the flac encoding standard is both open and free making it easy for one to write an application to convert flac files. The fact that no one has developed such a solution is indicative of the fact that there doesn't seem to be a huge appetite for a flac conversion outside of the fore-mentioned QuickTime 32-bit slipstreaming method using fluke or a (very) cheap, and I'm guessing polished app such as the $3.99 one that has been mentioned previously.

What I can say is blaming apple for the closed and frankly kinda antiquated way iTunes interacts with media is misdirected. The publishers and digital rights holders have demanded that apple continue to keep iTunes the way it is because they are deathly afraid of people having an easily accessible, high-bitrate, or lossless media file consumption method that doesn't involve some sort of drm. That's right, instead of trusting apple to do the right thing for both the media publishers as well as apple themselves, they have declared that they (the media rights holders) know better than the company that saved their entire industry, and by extension, their business model, single-handedly (while they were suing their customers in to oblivion and then wondering aloud to newspaper reporters why everyone hates them... Which is hilarious in it's own right).

So, if you want to complain, look in the mirror and then explain to yourself why you have not written an application that has the functionality you are looking for. There is plenty of information and tools freely available to allow someone to write such an application. If you aren't so good at taking accountability, write a letter to the riaa asking why they continue to insist that we live in the 20th century and refuse to acknowledge the fact that their business model is flawed in a variety of ways. Ask them why they think that white-knuckling their grip on the reigns of progress benefits anyone, it surely doesn't benefit artists or consumers (though I suppose it allowes a handful of c-level executives to draw a multi-million dollar salary for a few more years... But at what cost?)

Unfortunately there are good reasons to complain. I do some low-level development but your suggestion that we may "write such a solution" ourselves is impracticle to say the least. I'm sure others here are even less capable of said development.

Apple, at least to my knowledge, has no such "agreements with digital media publishers" as concerns DRM and excluding FLAC. Famously, Apple has their lossless codec ALAC (recently turned open-source) and though it may be theoretically possible to use DRM at the MP4 layer and wrap said ALAC in DRM, so too may one include DRM in an MKV and wrap a FLAC in DRM. In short neither ALAC nor FLAC has native DRM baked into it. If you can cite anything which shows Apple has the agreements which you claim they do, please link it, but any such alleged agreement must necessarily exclude ALAC since Apple isn't doing it.

If Apple's iTunes system for interacting with media is "closed and frankly kinda antiquated", who else would we blame? Surely Apple is responsible for that?

"The publishers and digital rights holders have demanded that apple continue to keep iTunes the way it is because they are deathly afraid of people having an easily accessible, high-bitrate, or lossless media file consumption method that doesn't involve some sort of drm." Utterly false. See comments about ALAC above.

And about looking into the mirror to ask why I have not written the code... we must ask "which code?". If you mean—as it seems from my reading of your recent comment—a codec conversion tool, those exist aplenty. I for one am not even remotely interested in converting some 2 TB of FLAC into ALAC so that guests to my home (I tend to use Clementine) can listen to music using iTunes.

For those interested in Clementine: http://jamesisin.com/a_high-tech_blech/index.php/2013/04/oh-my-darling-musica/

VLC plays pretty much any type of media and has a converter built in it's free and available

Syncopator wrote:

Let's look at his claim:

Lets look at YOUR claims.....

Syncopator wrote:

why wouldn't Apple "block" more audio formats? iTunes currently plays the following:

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)

AIFC

AIFF

ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec)

Audible.com (formats 2, 3, and 4)

Audio CD

MP3

MP4

QDesign

QuickTime audio (audio-only movies)

SND (System 7 sound)

uLaw (AU)

WAV

Why, coz it wouldn't make business sense to not support legacy file formats that millions of people use as standard i.e .mp3 Bit like when Apple buys in its software (Logic, Shake, original Final Cut Pro, etc) the first thing it did was discontinue the Windoze version YET Apple has actively gone out and released a Windoze version of iTiunes. Why? because OSX is a niche market it makes sense to lock in the 100's of millions of Win users.

Looking through your list a number of those codecs where MANDATED by the record labels as a condition of being able to sell music through iTunes i.e. Apple was forced to include them

Bit of a no-brainer that Apple allows its own codec's on its own devices SO theres not really that much independent choice.

Syncopator wrote:

If Apple wanted to "force" people to buy their music on iTunes, why allow iTunes to play any of these formats at all (besides Apple's own formats)? iTunes songs are AAC files. So, by this guy's logic, why doesn't Apple just block everything except AAC? I mean, if that's their agenda, wouldn't that be the way to do it?

Simples, if Apple tried to force you to buy all your content from iTunes how long do you think they'd have before Anti-trust laws would come down on them like a ton of bricks? Apple offers nothing more than an illusion of choice. Its why when I'm on holiday I can buy a CD rip it and send it to my Samsung Galaxy S5 via bluetooth. Oddly my wife can't as Apple mandates that any content has to be put on to her iPhone 5s via iTunes and then not just any iTunes but the one sat on the iMac on her desk in the study at home 3000 miles away. So the up shot is if she wants the content she has no choice but to buy it from iTunes on her phone or wait till the end of the holiday/business trip etc get back home buy the content and put it on via the iTunes at home which is no doubt a hassle that's made Apple billions and keeps it within Anti-Trust laws.

So, rather than spewing out opinions, as if they were facts, I'm going to state some actual facts:

1. FLAC is a lossless format. Apple has its own lossless format (ALAC). (Is it possible Apple believes their lossless format is actually a better, lossless format? Who knows.)

2. Casual reading on the internet reveals there may be some legal issues with Apple including FLAC. (True or not, it's certainly more plausible than blocking the obscure FLAC as a way to force people to buy music on iTunes.)

3. Apps that convert FLAC to iTunes-compatible formats are readily available -- even on Apple's Mac App Store!! If Apple didn't want anyone using their FLAC files, why would they allow conversion apps in their own store? (Even if Apple's percentage from the developer is $1, that's far less than they'd make by blocking the apps and making people buy album after album in iTunes. So, again, this invalidates the cynical claim.)

4. FLAC files require heavy computations (decoding) on the fly, which would quickly drain the batteries of iPods, iPhones, and iPads.

1. Apple ALWAYS believes its better even when it isn't. Its goes with the territory of hating any form of competition.

2. Love the insertion of the word 'causal'!! FLAC has no known Patent issues to suggest otherwise is pure FUD

3. "why would they allow" You could ONLY make that statement in conection with Apple and it goes to the very heart of what Apple is about 😟

4. Am wondering if thats meant to be a comment on the poor quality of Apple batteries that they can't handle the miniscule extra drain of a FLAC file? And if so I wonder how Synocpator justifes the presence of DRM codec's that place a much higher drain on battery than FLAC files.

Syncopator wrote:

Yes, Apple could allow FLAC files to play in iTunes on a computer, but many users would be confused when those files didn't transfer and play on their iPods, etc.

Now that made me laugh out loud..... doesn't say much about the mental capacity of Apple users if they can be so easily confused!! 🙂

Oddly there are lots of files that won't transfer natively straight to iOS from iTunes video files for instance does that confuse people?

Syncopator wrote:

We don't know the actual reasons Apple eschews FLAC, but critical thinking shows that blocking FLAC as a way to force people to buy music on iTunes would be a very ineffective strategy, if for no other reason than the painfully small percentage of users who even know what FLAC is, let alone prefer to use it.

Let's use our brains, folks.

Yes, we do know why Apple won't allow FLAC its because it doesn't like competition, its arrogant and it wants to promote its own niche market. Compare the painfully small percentage of people using Apple's own AAC compared to MP3/4 doesn't stop Apple supporting it.

Yes, lets open our eyes and use our brains and learn to look at things with a more critical eye.

I was searching for how to do this...and wait..... itunes doesn't play FLAC? Is it the 1990s? It really seems like apple will never be a company in the modern age.

Very well stated. Unfortunately, the intended audience (those who do not use the brain) stopped reading early on.

I, on the other hand, appreciate your analysis. The processing power of the portable device was not something I had considered before. I just always assumed it had to do with file size and/or legal agreements.

try using the app younity . It's a home media server software application that let's you access and stream all of the files on your computer to your phone. So you can bypass iTunes and use this app to find and play your FLAC files on your iPhone or iPad.

Check out this article for more info on using FLAC with younity.

(https://blog.getyounity.com/flac-to-mp3/)

Yes, there is a reason none of these people can't write the one-click solution themselves: The QuickTime API specifically removed the ability to do so. Prior to QuickTime X, the application you speak of was written. There were the Xiph QuickTime component, the Perian system preference, in fact there were a number of them. Then in QuickTime X Apple specifically removed the QTkit extensibility API that enabled them to be developed up through QuickTime 7, so that they stopped working with OS X 10.9 and could not be upgraded or reauthored to ever work again in the convenient, transparent manner they are asking for, as they had up to that point. Read the page at Xiph.org about why they discontinued it. That extensibility capability was previously in OS X for many years, but it no longer is, at all. The underlying API was removed.

That is true with regard to mobile devices, the tech behind FLAC is not great for realtime conversion, it's pretty taxing in terms of energy consumption, and with mobile devices in particular it's bad enough to become an issue. (I vaguely recall learning about this when I had a little Archos player running Rockbox in 2004 or so.) But that doesn't explain the removal of the QuickTime Component extensibility framework from OS X, which runs on the desktop, and for many years was completely usable even on older laptops with far worse battery capacity and far less efficient processors than today. And the original question was about Lion, a desktop operating system.

Great answer, 🙂