ITF (Internet Engineering Task Force) Committee, responsible for developing protocols and architecture for the Internet, recently finalized the creation of an RFC for a free lossless audio codec known as FLAC. Developed by the Xiph.org community, the specifications for this format are now published under the identifier RFC 9639. This RFC has been designated as a “proposed standard,” with efforts underway to elevate it to the status of a “black standard” (DRAFT Standard) to achieve complete stabilization and address any remaining comments.
The release of this RFC is expected to simplify the development of new FLAC decoders from scratch and ensure that support for the format can be maintained in the future, even after the format itself may become obsolete. Prior to this, developers relied on documentation from the XIPH project and a reference implementation for details. With the publication of the RFC, all necessary information is consolidated into a single document, eliminating the need to refer to source code or mailing list archives for specifics. The RFC encompasses the existing FLAC compression format, with specific guidelines for support of 32-bit audio and certain limitations.
The FLAC Codec utilizes lossless coding methods, ensuring the complete preservation of the original sound quality. By employing lossless compression techniques, the size of the audio stream can be reduced by 50-60%. FLAC is an open-source format that allows for the free use of libraries containing encoding and decoding functions, as well as the creation of derivative options. The code for reference libraries can be found on GitHub and is distributed under the BSD license.