How to convert ALAC to FLAC?

I have some ALAC files (.m4a) that I want to convert to FLAC (.flac). How can I do this?

1 Answer

1. Install ffmpeg:

   sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

2. Files can be converted to FLAC from ALAC via the command ffmpeg -i audio.m4a -acodec flac audio.flac. To do this for a while directory of files go to that directory (cd path) and issue the following:

   for f in *.m4a; do ffmpeg -i "$f" "${f%.m4a}.flac"; done

3. (Optional)

   • Add replay gain to the FLAC files.
   • If the conversion is successful you can remove the ALAC files.

For reference see and .