The audio coding format known as the Apple Lossless Audio Coding (ALAC), alternatively referred to as Apple Lossless or Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE),
With a maximum sample rate of 384 kHz, ALAC can handle up to 8 channels of audio at 16, 20, 24, and 32 bit depths.
ALAC data is often saved as files with the extension .m4a inside of MP4 containers.
Instead of being a lossy format similar to AAC, ALAC is a separate lossless format that makes use of linear prediction.
Moreover, ALAC doesn’t employ any DRM plans.
Apple claims that audio files compressed using its lossless codec will take up "roughly half the storage space" compared to uncompressed data.
It has been estimated that decoding ALAC takes about four times as much CPU power as FLAC.
ALAC encoded files are playable on all modern iOS devices.
For the ALAC format, the open-source library libavcodec includes both an encoder and a decoder.
In June 2021, Apple Music added lossless music via ALAC, which was added at no extra cost to all subscribers.
We’ll find out what MP3 and ALAC differ from one another next.
Since ALAC files are true CD quality, they have a superior sound quality than MP3s.
FLAC and ALAC files are the premium formats, while MP3 files are the standard format.
You can use MP3 files on your computer and home stereo system because of their versatility.
Both FLAC and Apple Lossless (ALAC) employ ‘lossless’ compression, which means that while the source audio file is shrunk, no audio information from the master recording is lost.
An FLAC or ALAC file that has been extracted has the same 44.1 kHz, 16 bit stereo sound as the original source.
We’ll learn about Apple Music AAC or ALAC next.
When you purchase albums and songs through the iTunes Store, the files you
Advanced Audio Coding will be available for download (AAC) layout.
Apple Lossless Audio is what iTunes refers to as the ALAC format option.
codec (or just Apple Lossless), and it doesn’t significantly reduce the sound quality of your music through compression.
The audio remains similar to AAC, but the primary distinction is that the audio quality is preserved.
The ALAC format uses the same .m4a file extension as the standard AAC format.
Ripping your audio CDs with the ALAC option will create flawless copies of your discs if you want to keep your originals.
You may already be aware that audio quality is lost when converting from one lossy format to another.
There’s less support for ALAC than for popular lossy formats like AAC.