FLAC vs WMA
How do FLAC and WMAcompare? Here's everything you need to know to choose the right format — and how to convert between them.
.flac
Full guide →Free Lossless Audio Codec
FLAC is the leading open-source lossless audio format. It compresses audio files to about 50-60% of their original size without any quality loss — perfect for audiophiles and music archival.
.wma
Full guide →Windows Media Audio
WMA is Microsoft's proprietary audio format. While it offered competitive quality in the early 2000s, it has largely been superseded by AAC and other formats. It's still encountered in legacy Windows media libraries.
| Specification | FLAC | WMA |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Free Lossless Audio Codec | Windows Media Audio |
| Extension | .flac | .wma |
| MIME type | audio/flac | audio/x-ms-wma |
| Category | Audio | Audio |
| Developer | Xiph.Org Foundation | Microsoft |
| Year introduced | 2001 | 1999 |
| Compression | Lossless | Lossy |
FLAC advantages
- Lossless — identical to original audio
- 50-60% smaller than WAV
- Open source and royalty-free
- Excellent metadata and tagging support
FLAC limitations
- Larger than lossy formats like MP3
- Not supported by all portable devices
- Slower to encode than lossy formats
- iTunes/Apple Music prefer ALAC
WMA advantages
- Good compression at low bitrates
- DRM support for content protection
- Native Windows support
- Lossless mode available
WMA limitations
- Limited cross-platform support
- Proprietary format
- Declining popularity
- Not supported on many portable devices
Which should you use?
FLAC preserves full audio quality with no compression artifacts. WMA offers much smaller files at the cost of some quality. For casual listening, WMA is fine. For production or archival, use FLAC.
Best uses for FLAC
Best uses for WMA
Convert between FLAC and WMA
Need to switch formats? Convert for free with SquishConvert.