Lossless Music Archives ⭐ Trusted

| Codec | Extension | Compression Ratio (vs. WAV) | Typical Use | Key Feature | |-------|-----------|-----------------------------|-------------|--------------| | FLAC | .flac | ~50–60% | Personal archives, Plex, streaming (Tidal, Qobuz) | Open source, checksums, fast decoding | | ALAC | .m4a | ~55–65% | Apple ecosystem (iTunes, Apple Music) | Native iOS/macOS support | | WAV | .wav | 100% (uncompressed) | Studio mastering, old archives | No compression, universal | | AIFF | .aiff | 100% | Legacy Mac audio | Same as WAV with different header | | WavPack | .wv | ~40–70% | Hybrid lossy/lossless layer | Can store lossy correction file | | Monkey’s Audio | .ape | ~40–50% | High compression (Torrent scene) | Very slow decode, niche |

Lossless archives live or die by metadata. FLAC supports Vorbis comments; standard fields include: lossless music archives

| Field | Purpose | Example | |-------|---------|---------| | TITLE | Track title | "Stairway to Heaven" | | ARTIST | Track artist | "Led Zeppelin" | | ALBUMARTIST | Sorting artist | "Led Zeppelin" | | DATE | Release year | "1971" | | ORIGINALDATE | First publication | "1971" | | CATALOGNUMBER | Label ID | "ATCO SD 7208" | | SOURCE | Media type | "CD", "Vinyl 24/96", "Web FLAC" | | RIPPER | Software/tool | "EAC 1.6" | | ENCODER | FLAC version | "FLAC 1.4.2 -8" | | MUSICBRAINZ_* | Linked to MBID | TRACKID, RELEASEGROUPID | | Codec | Extension | Compression Ratio (vs

| Tier | Media | Notes | |------|-------|-------| | Primary | SSD or fast HDD | For daily access / streaming | | Backup 1 | External HDD (mirror) | Weekly sync | | Backup 2 | Offsite (cloud or remote drive) | Encrypted. Backblaze B2 / Wasabi work well | | Archive | LTO tape or M-DISC | For irreplaceable rare rips | Backblaze B2 / Wasabi work well | |

No single point of failure. Follow 3-2-1:
3 copies, 2 media types, 1 offsite.

The landscape is shifting rapidly.