Tip #29: Convert music files from any format to any format

If you read this earlier post on how to import FLAC files into iTunes on Mac and were like "damn, what about us iPod users using Windows?", then this tip is especially for you. dBpoweramp Music Converter (for Windows, can be run on Linux using Wine [sorry Macs! nothing for you this time] ) can convert your music files from nearly any format to any format you could possibly think of (and perhaps even formats you have never even heard of).

But wait - what does this have to do with our previous problem of iTunes on Windows not being able to deal with FLAC files? We will use dMC to convert the FLAC files into Apple Lossless format, which iTunes can natively support. Additionally, we can also use dMC to convert the FLAC files into Windows Media Audio Lossless format, so that those who are using Windows Media Player need not go through the process of installing FLAC codecs and tag support for Windows Media Player.

Tip #27: Import FLAC into iTunes (on Mac) and sync to your iPod

Using iTunes on Windows? Read this post instead.

If you own an iPod, and you are seriously hooked on lossless music formats like FLAC (like me), you are slightly out of luck: iPods don't support FLAC, but they do however support Apple's own lossless format called Apple Lossless. On Windows, iTunes doesn't even let you import FLAC files into your library. I have found a tutorial to import FLAC files into iTunes on Mac, play them, and convert them to Apple Lossless for syncing to an iPod. The video did help a great deal, you can watch it to see it in action step by step, but the author did miss out a critical step. Here are the complete steps to do it if you are using iTunes on a Mac.