How To Convert FLAC to MP3

FLAC logo FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a lossless audio compression format. It’s often used to digitally store and transfer music without any loss in quality. The files tend to be rather large though – for example, 3 minutes of audio could take up around 18 Mb.

On the other hand, MP3 is a lossy compression format that is supported by pretty much any audio player (plus the files tend to be smaller). Sometimes you need to convert FLAC to MP3, e.g. to be able to play it on your iPod. In this post I’ll describe how you can do that.

I tried out several free FLAC to MP3 converters prior to writing this tutorial. According to my testing, dBpoweramp seems to be the best choice. So that’s what I’ll use here. However, if this converter doesn’t work for you, there are certainly other viable alternatives, e.g. Foobar2000.

Okay, on with the tutorial 🙂 Here’s the step-by-step guide for converting FLAC to MP3.

  1. Install dBpoweramp Music Converter. You can download it here.
  2. Install the FLAC codec for dBpoweramp.
  3. Start up the dBpoweramp Batch Converter. Usually you can find the converter here : Programs -> dBpoweramp Music Converter -> dBpoweramp Batch Converter
  4. Locate the FLAC files you want to convert using the built-in navigator and tick their checkboxes. You can also select an entire folder (or several) by clicking the boxes near them. Click “Convert”.
  5. A conversion settings window will pop up. There’s a lot of options here, but don’t worry – in most cases you will only need a few of them. First, select “MP3 (Lame)” from the Converting To dropdown. Then set the quality and bitrate according to your preferences. And finally, choose where you want the MP3 files to be placed. Then click “Convert >>”.
  6. dBpoweramp will then convert the FLAC files to the MP3 format. Depending on how many files you’re converting, and the quality settings, this could take a few minutes.
  7. Congratulations! Now you can put the converted MP3’s on your iPod, or whatever 😉
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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 00:13 and is filed under Miscellany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

174 Responses to “How To Convert FLAC to MP3”

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  1. Bindegal says:
    June 6, 2011 at 01:03

    I know a great free converter called Oxelon.
    i had not tried convert the flac in that, but i can see both Flac and MP3 format is in it.

    Only crap is, it opens a browser window, every time you finished converting.. But the good is, you can in the install folder remove the link (html file).

    Look here at my screenshot:
    http://i.imgur.com/lH1sV.png

    All you need is download the prog and a plugin.
    You can see more here guys:
    http://www.oxelon.com/media_converter.html

  2. BunnyKissd says:
    July 16, 2011 at 20:37

    Thanks! Very quick & easy!

  3. mp3 says:
    September 30, 2011 at 21:40

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  4. C Wells says:
    October 4, 2011 at 17:00

    “I tried out several free FLAC to MP3 converters prior to writing this tutorial. According to my testing, dBpoweramp seems to be the best choice.”
    It may be the best choice, but $28 is not free.

  5. Evil_hero says:
    October 10, 2011 at 07:09

    Thanks! love that dbPowerAmp uses multiple cores. It cruised through those FLACS

  6. jaques says:
    November 13, 2011 at 22:55

    you da bestest.

  7. mudbug6483 says:
    December 10, 2011 at 14:58

    Poweramp did convert the flacs just like u said but the flac files i was converting were entire discs so now each disc is one long track. Do you know how to break it back into multiple tracks from a flack file or from the converted mp3’s?

  8. healthyemily says:
    December 29, 2011 at 12:05

    Just google search Step-by-step Guide on How to Convert FLAC to MP3 using Windows or Mac

    you will find a simple way to convert flac to mp3, wav, wma, m4a, aac and etc.

  9. me says:
    January 20, 2012 at 20:00

    mp3 sucks! If you want a good lossy audio format use vorbis .ogg

  10. you says:
    January 20, 2012 at 20:30

    OGG’s Vorbis and its modified version aoTuV kick the shit out of any lossy audio compression format mp3, wav and aac at almost any bitrate. Just take a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis#Quality:_Codec_comparisons

    Vorbis also has support for multichannel audio, up to 256 channels, while mp3 can only codec mono or stereo.

    But regarding to quality, .flac is the best format out there.

  11. happybabyboy says:
    May 30, 2012 at 10:28

    Just google search Step by Step Guide on How to Convert FLAC to MP3 on Windows or Mac

    you will find a simple solution

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    July 17, 2013 at 04:26

    With thanks! I appreciate this.

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    July 18, 2013 at 08:01

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  14. alfredbobes says:
    April 3, 2015 at 09:46

    I use iDealshare VideoGo to Convert FLAC to MP3 on Mac OS X

    And then I can play my FLAC files on iPhone, iPod, iPad, MP3 Players, and more popular devices and players.

    Besides, it also helps to convert FLAC to WAV, AAC, AC3, WMA, M4A, AIFF, OGG, etc. Happy with it.

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