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Introduction

FLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost. Digital audio compressed by FLAC's algorithm can typically be reduced to 50–60% of its original size, and decompressed into an identical copy of the original audio data. FLAC is an open format with royalty-free licensing and a reference implementation which is free software. FLAC has support for metadata tagging, album cover art, and fast seeking.

Many users have their audio collection in FLAC format. Typically to listen to flac songs on a iOS devices these steps must be performed:

Since iOS devices cannot play FLAC as such, use a transcoding tool to convert FLAC into a playable format such as mp3 or m4a.
Connect your iPhone or iPad to the computer.
Start iTunes and import your collection into iTunes.
Transfer converted songs into iPhone or iPad.

But there is an easier method to listen to your FLAC collection without performing any of the above steps. This method involves using a free software called 'Tonido'.

Steps

Follow these steps to listen to FLAC files without doing any conversion or transferring into iOS device.

1. Install Tonido Desktop

Install the Tonido desktop app in your PC (Windows,Mac and Linux) and create an user account . Please download Tonido desktop software from here. It is completely FREE. Tonido application running in your PC will automatically convert FLAC files to iOS compatible format for playback (a.k.a transcoding).

2. Install Tonido iOS App

Install the Tonido iOS app from Apple app store onto your iPhone or iPad.

3. Launch Tonido iOS App

When you launch the iOS app, it will prompt for the account information. Enter the details of the tonido account created in step 1.

4. Browse and listen to FLAC

Upon successful login, you can see full content of your computer. Navigate to the folders containing your FLAC files. You can even select the bitrate for transcoding while listening to FLAC from the Tonido iOS App.

5. Listen to your music

The downloaded files can be accessed by selecting the "This Device" option in the main Accounts page. The downloaded files are automatically placed in one of the following four folders depending on the type of the file being downloaded. Navigate through these folders and play/queue music in them.