14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla engineers are working on integrating FLAC support into Firefox, which, according to current estimations, will be available starting with the stable version of Firefox 51, set to be released at the end of January of next year.
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, and it is an open source lossless compression audio codec. FLAC is notorious among music lovers because it allows them to listen to original audio data, but at a fraction of the file's size, even if FLAC files are many times over regular MP3 documents.
Firefox is first major browser to support FLAC
According to a thread on Mozilla's Bugzilla issue tracker, the Foundation's engineers have already started work on embedding FLAC support in the main Firefox codebase.
While FLAC is supported in a few smaller browsers that not many have heard about, Firefox will be the first from the Big Five (Chrome, Firefox, IE/Edge, Safari, Opera) to officially support it.
Currently, only music streaming services such as Soundcloud and Tidal provide FLAC versions of their audio files to users, but only in the cases where devices and the users' software allow them to play such files.
When accessing these services via a regular browser, users are usually asked to download the FLAC file, or open it using a software program installed on the device.
FLAC support is already available in Firefox Nightly edition
After Mozilla integrates FLAC in Firefox, FLAC files will play automatically inside the browser, just like regular MP3, WAV, and other audio files do. You can test FLAC support in Firefox via the browser maker's Firefox Nightly editions.
With Internet speeds going up around the globe, or at least in the developed countries where most music consumers are based, FLAC will eventually replace MP3 and provide better quality audio to users.