FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) compresses audio without discarding anything: decode it and you get back the original samples bit-for-bit. Typical files land around half the size of the equivalent WAV, with no quality cost, and the format embeds per-frame checksums so corruption is detectable. Being open and unencumbered by royalties, FLAC became the standard for archival masters, broadcast contribution, and high-resolution music distribution (Bandcamp, Qobuz, the lossless tiers of streaming services). It is not meant for low-bitrate delivery — that is a job for lossy codecs — but wherever you need perfect fidelity at a smaller size than PCM, FLAC is the default choice.
