Convert FLAC to High-Quality MP3 (or WAV, or AIFF) for iTunes (OS X)

Something that has bothered me for a very long time is my inability to play FLAC audio files on my Mac. (FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec and does not play in iTunes.) Well, I’ve finally gotten it figured out. Just follow these simple steps.

This tip applies to Apple computers only.  Windows users, follow these tips instead.

1. Download xACT, which converts from FLAC to WAV or AIFF.
2. Open your FLAC files in xACT. Convert them to either WAV or AIFF; it doesn’t matter which.
3. Import your finished WAV or AIFF files into iTunes (I usually just drag them onto Library on the left). If you want completely lossless files, you are done!
4. Most of us will want to save space (and enjoy playback with less of a system resource hit!). Select the songs you would like to convert, right-click them, and select “Create MP3 version.”
5. Almost done! Now delete the WAV/AIFF files from your iTunes library and move them to the Trash. Manually edit the information on the songs, because unfortunately, WAV and AIFF do not support the ID3 tags that MP3 files have to store information about song title, artist, and album. Voilà!

Updated November 1, 2009 to compensate for the disappearance of AtomicLemur’s converter iLAS.

If you discover an even better way to convert FLAC on a Mac or play FLAC audio in iTunes, let me know and I’ll update this page, which helps dozens of other people every day (as of February 20, 2010). Thanks for your helpful comments so far!