, Tidal and soon Qobuz - and depending on the record, they can be indistinguishable from the CD. However there are several major streaming services that offer very high sound quality. At the lower end of the scale, Pandora and Rhapsody have been streaming for years at bit-rates between 128kbps and 192kbps but they're no match for lossless FLAC in the audio department. While audiophiles are mostly concerned with music bought from music stores like Bandcamp and HD Tracks, it's not the only option available to people interested in high quality music.
FLAC versus streamingįLAC downloads have one major competitor: streaming. As a format FLAC will probably never be as popular a format as CD and DVD were in their heydays, but it's quickly become the format of choice for people who care about sound quality.
While physical discs are still popular, their usefulness will eventually be eclipsed by the convenience of purely digital files: whether that means streaming or software files stored on your network or in the cloud.
