FLAC to MP3 converter
A press kit is a delivery problem with four recipients and one email limit: encoding from a FLAC master means the MP3 pass is the only loss applied, unlike re-encoding an MP3 that already lost something. The bitrate is chosen per recipient, not globally.
The target codec is lossy, so the original samples are not restored bit for bit.
Processed on your device. Files aren’t sent anywhere.
The send list decides the bitrate
Illustrative: a 4-minute track mastered in FLAC at 24-bit/48 kHz, and four recipients — a radio station, two music blogs and a press mailbox with an attachment cap. Each recipient has a different playback context and a different size ceiling, so one global bitrate is the wrong answer.
| Recipient | Playback context | Bitrate | Illustrative size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Radio station | May edit or air it; good equipment | 320 kbps | ~15 MB |
| Music blog | Streams on a phone | 192 kbps | ~9 MB |
| Press mailbox | Attachment cap; listened once | 128 kbps | ~6 MB |
| Video teaser | Audio is secondary to picture | 128 kbps | ~6 MB |
One encode, one loss
Lossy encoding discards audio information it judges unlikely to be heard. From a lossless master that happens once; from an already-lossy file it happens twice, and the second pass smears what the first already thinned. Encoding from FLAC is why the promo copy reads cleanly.
- Encode each copy from the master, never from another copy
- Convert one file per run, up to 60 MiB and 600 seconds of audio
- Read the reported codec and duration before attaching anything
- Check the copy on the recipient's context — phone speakers, not the studio monitor
Naming so versions do not drift
A press kit fails quietly when recipients attach different files. Use one stem and a bitrate suffix: trackname-192.mp3, trackname-320.mp3. The stem stays identical to the master's stem, so a re-encode later is a copy operation rather than a guess.
Listening check before sending
A smaller file is not automatically a listenable one. The things that degrade first are specific, so the check is targeted rather than general.
- Sibilance and cymbals — these degrade before speech or bass does
- Quiet passages — they can fill with a watery artefact instead of staying silent
- Stereo width — a narrow mix reads as acceptable, a wide one can collapse at low bitrate
After the campaign
Promo copies expire; masters do not. Keep the FLAC, delete the attachments, and re-encode when the next campaign asks for something different.
- Archive shelf: FLAC to Ogg for a streaming release, FLAC to WAV for editing and measurement
- Legacy hosts that only accept MP3: encode from the master, not from a promo copy
- Never treat a promo MP3 as the source for a future encode