Choosing Audio Formats: MP3, M4A, WAV and FLAC
The same audio exported as MP3, M4A, or FLAC differs tenfold in size and entirely in purpose. Format is not a quality ranking — the destination decides the choice.
Where each of the six formats sits
Keep original encoding (copy) is the zero-cost special case: extracting a track from video as a stream copy — lossless, instant, output codec identical to the source. MP3 is the compatibility king: plays on anything from any era, at the cost of efficiency versus AAC. M4A (AAC) is the modern default: better sound at the same bitrate and full platform support — the native tongue of the Apple ecosystem.
WAV is uncompressed raw data: enormous, kept for one reason — feeding editing software, which processes lossless most reliably. FLAC is lossless compression: half of WAV size with bit-perfect restoration, the standard answer for music archives. OGG serves the web and open-source world — efficient but narrower compatibility than MP3/AAC.
Quality tiers: three is enough
Re-encoded formats (MP3/AAC/OGG) come in three tiers: high (MP3 V2 / AAC 192k / OGG q6) for music and critical ears; standard (MP3 V4 / AAC 128k / OGG q4), the universal sweet spot for sharing and podcasts; small (MP3 V6 / AAC 96k / OGG q2) for speech and hard size limits.
WAV and FLAC are lossless — no quality tiers exist, because their whole point is losing nothing; the quality setting simply does not apply to them. For speech content, standard tier is the ceiling: higher tiers buy zero audible improvement.
A decision table
Pulling a track from video, no fuss: keep original or M4A. Sending to unknown devices: MP3 standard. Archiving irreplaceable music: FLAC. Feeding an editor: WAV. Web playback, open ecosystems: OGG. Lecture and meeting recordings: M4A or MP3 at the small tier.
Two disciplines govern everything: re-encode exactly once — the FLAC-to-MP3-to-AAC chain loses information at every hop, so go from the most lossless source straight to the target; and there is no upgrading between lossy formats — MP3 to M4A never improves, conversion always flows from higher fidelity downward.