<P><AHREF="http://www.livebonnaroo.com/catalog.html">Several sets</A> from the Bonnaroo Music Festival are available in FLAC, including <AHREF="http://stores.musictoday.com/store/product.asp?dept%5Fid=3045&pf%5Fid=FEDD17&band%5Fid=741&sfid=2">Dave Matthews & Friends</A> and <AHREF="http://stores.musictoday.com/store/product.asp?dept%5Fid=3045&pf%5Fid=FEDD67&band%5Fid=741&sfid=2">String Cheese Incident</A>, with more to follow as the soundboard recordings are approved by the bands.</P>
<P><AHREF="http://digitalsoundboard.net/">DigitalSoundboard.net</A> has begun <AHREF="http://app1.dsbd.net/dsb/24-bitPrimer.jsp">offering 24-bit recordings in FLAC format</A>.</P>
<P><AHREF="http://www.charliehunter.com/">Charlie Hunter</A> is making select albums <AHREF="http://www.charliehunter.com/news/main.htm#Solo8">available for download in FLAC</A> and MP3 formats.</P>
<P><AHREF="http://www.phatnoise.com/">PhatNoise</A> (makers of the <AHREF="http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/index.php">PhatBox</A>, which also plays FLAC) just released their <AHREF="http://www.phatnoise.com/products/homeplayer/index.php">Home Digital Media Player</A>. It includes a DMS cartridge slot so you can pop out your FLAC tunes and pop 'em in your car.</P>
<P>Slim Devices' new <AHREF="http://www.slimdevices.com/">Squeezebox</A>, the wireless follow-on to the SliMP3 networked audio player, is available and supports FLAC and Ogg Vorbis.</P>
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. Grossly oversimplified, FLAC is similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player (or your car or home stereo, see links to the right for supported devices) just like you would an MP3 file.
FLAC is freely available and supported on most operating systems, including Windows, "unix" (Linux, *BSD, Solaris, OS X, IRIX), BeOS, OS/2, and Amiga. There are build systems for autotools, MSVC, Watcom C, and Project Builder.
</P>
<P>
See the <AHREF="features.html">features page</A> for a complete list of features, or the <AHREF="comparison.html">comparison page</A> to see how FLAC compares with other lossless codecs.
When we say that FLAC is "Free" it means more than just that it is available at no cost. It means that the specification of the format is fully open to the public to be used for any purpose (the FLAC project reserves the right to set the FLAC specification and certify compliance), and that neither the FLAC format nor any of the implemented encoding/decoding methods are covered by any known patent. It also means that all the source code is available under open-source licenses. It is the first truly open and free lossless audio format.
The documentation is available online as well as in the distributions. The general installation and usage documentation for <B><TT>flac</TT></B> and the plugins is <AHREF="documentation.html">here</A>. For a detailed description of the FLAC format and reference encoder see the <AHREF="format.html">FLAC format page</A>.
If you have an application that uses FLAC and would like it to be able to tag FLAC files with custom metadata, visit the <AHREF="id.html">registration page</A> to register an ID for your application.
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="news.html#20040621">21-Jun-2004</A> :<BR> Bonnaroo soundboard recordings available in FLAC<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="news.html#20040303">03-Mar-2004</A> :<BR> Metallica offers live shows in FLAC<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="news.html#20040203">03-Feb-2004</A> :<BR> Charlie Hunter makes select albums available in FLAC<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="news.html#20031119">19-Nov-2003</A> :<BR> PhatNoise's new Home Digital Media Player supports FLAC<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="news.html#20031111">11-Nov-2003</A> :<BR> Primus offers live shows in FLAC<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="news.html#20031013">13-Oct-2003</A> :<BR> Magnatune catalog available in FLAC<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="news.html#20030811">11-Aug-2003</A> :<BR> New Rio Karma supports FLAC<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial">- <AHREF="http://www.request.com/us/">AudioReQuest</A> music servers<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial">- <AHREF="http://www.phatnoise.com/products/homeplayer/index.php">PhatNoise Home Digital Media Player</A><BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial">- <AHREF="http://www.sonicblue.com/audio/rio/rio_receiver.asp">Rio Reciever</A> and Dell Digital Audio Receiver via <AHREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/rioplay/">RioPlay</A> client<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial">- <AHREF="http://www.phatnoise.com/products/digitalmediaplayers/kenwood_music_keg.php">Kenwood Music Keg</A><BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.archive.org/">archive.org</A>, the Internet Archive:<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial">- <AHREF="http://www.archive.org/audio/etree.php">Live Music Archive</A><BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.hispalinux.es/~data/abcde.php">abcde</A> (A Better CD Encoder)<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://arson.sourceforge.net/">Arson</A>: KDE ripper/burner<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://flac-tools.sourceforge.net/">flac-tools</A>: includes flac123 player<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://getid3.sourceforge.net/">getID3()</A>: a PHP4 script for extracting metadata<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.gstreamer.net/">GStreamer</A> streaming media framework<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://hasas.sourceforge.net/">HASAS</A> HydroAcoustical Signal Analysis System<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.danrules.com/macflac/">MacFLAC</A> Mac OS X FLAC distribution<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://mareo.netfirms.com/">MAREO</A> multi-format encoder for EAC<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.monsterfang.com/MCinFLAC/">Media Center FLAC plugin</A><BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://mediaxw.sourceforge.net/">MediaXW</A> includes FLAC DirectShow filter<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://math.berkeley.edu/~roconnor/MMIOMP3/">MMIOFLAC</A>, Multimedia IOProc for OS/2<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://musicpd.sourceforge.net/">MPD</A>, Music Player Daemon<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.mythtv.org/">MythTV</A>: Linux PVR and more<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://ptarmigan.sourceforge.net/">Ptarmigan</A> media parser for XML<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.rhythmbox.org/">Rhythmbox</A>, music management application for GNOME<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.icculus.org/SDL_sound/">SDL_sound</A> audio add-on to SDL<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.lammerts.org/software/soepkiptng/">Soepkip TNG</A> music playing daemon + web interface<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.cyclooctane.com/sonice/">sonice</A> FLAC to Vorbis transcoder<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.thomer.com/musicvault/">Thomer's Music Vault</A>: a Linux music server<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.amb.org/xmcd/">xmcd</A>: X CD player<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.xmms.org/">XMMS</A>: X MultiMedia System<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://swami.sourceforge.net/">Swami</A>: Sound font editor<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
<TR><TDBGCOLOR="#EEEED4"><SMALL><FONTFACE="Lucida,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial"><AHREF="http://www.baudline.com/">Baudline</A> signal analyzer<BR></FONT></SMALL></TD></TR>
