How to play/convert FLAC files in iTunes

Published June 11, 2007

http://earpick.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/how-to-play-flac-in-itunes-on-mac/

Some time ago I had acquired recordings in FLAC format and since the only lossless format iPods would play was Apple Lossless, converting to that format was my only option.

Here is what you do.

What we’re gonna do is get iTunes to play FLAC files natively. That way, we can convert them right within iTunes to Apple Lossless for playback on iPods, preserving all the tags and bypassing the .AIFFs. That is good. So, here we go.

1. Open the zip file with a double-click and open the resulting .dmg archive also with a double-click.
2. Take the XiphQT file, and copy it into /Library/Quicktime/. Just to be safe, I copied mine into ~/Library/Components/ as well. (~ is your Home folder, so you gotta go to Finder, click on your home folder, go into Library, and then Components. /Library/Quicktime/ on the other hand, is NOT in your home folder; you have to click on your hard drive in Finder or on the desktop to get to it).
3. Take the file called FLACImport.component with a LEGO icon. Do the same to it as to the XiphQT file, i.e. copy it into /Library/Quicktime/ and ~/Library/Components/.
4. Lastly, take the Set OggS file and copy it to the desktop or somewhere convenient.
5. You should reboot at this point.
6. Once you’re done rebooting, find a .flac file you want to play, right/CTRL+click on it, go Open With>Other, and find Quicktime on the list there. If all is good, Quicktime will open up, and after hitting play/spacebar you should hear the sweet sounds of music. If you get an error instead, you screwed up, and should start from the beginning.
7. At this point, Quicktime will play FLACs, but chances are iTunes won’t. Try it. Drag a .flac file onto the iTunes icon in the dock. If all iTunes does is show up onscreen cluessly like a half-awake student midway through the math class after partying heavily, then we’re not done.
8. Remember that Set OggS file that you dragged onto your desktop, with an icon of a snake? Find your FLAC files, and drag them onto Set OggS’s application icon. It should not be running when you’re doing that - dragging your files onto the dock icon of Set OggS while it’s running isn’t gonna do anything. You have to quit it, and then drag the tracks onto the icon on your desktop or wherever you saved it.
9. Once you do that, the program is going to start up and print out a bunch of stuff saying the operation was a success. Jolly good. Now take the same .flac files you just dragged onto Set OggS and drag them onto the iTunes icon in the dock again. iTunes should start importing and/or playing the tracks. Hooray! If you don’t use iPods, you could just listen to your FLAC files this way and be happy. However, FLAC files still display certain issues like problems with tags and artwork, and by converting to Apple Lossless those will go away.
10. Double check that Apple Lossless is set as your importing format: go to the iTunes menu at the top, and choose Preferences (or hit Command+,), head to the Advanced tab, there click on the Importing tab, and make sure Import Using is set to Apple Lessless. Now you’re good to go.
11. Highlight all the FLAC files you just imported into iTunes within the Library, right-click on them and choose Convert to Apple Lossless.

After a bit of crunching, iTunes will make an annoying chime letting you know that it’s all done. Select all the FLAC files holding Command on the keyboard (they’re all the odd ones) and trash them. Voila. You now have Apple Lossless files out of your FLACs.

Okay. So next time you want to convert your FLACs, just go through steps 8 to 11 and you should be good. It is somewhat semi-automatic due to the necessary step of running Set to OggS. Oh, and in step 10, you can set the encoder to MP3 or AAC instead of Apple Lossless. Enjoy.