While the average iTunes user has probably never heard of FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), audiophiles swear by it. That's because FLAC is a lossless format, meaning that FLAC files retain all of the audio information that makes up a song. This is different from AAC and MP3, which are called lossy formats because they remove parts of songs (usually the highest and lowest ends of the range) to compress the songs, resulting in smaller files.

Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, FLAC is not compatible with iTunes. This puts FLAC-loving audiophiles who prefer iTunes and iOS devices in a difficult position: do they sacrifice audio quality or the tools they prefer?

Fortunately, the choice isn't that big. While iTunes and iOS don't support FLAC natively, here are six ways to play FLAC in iTunes and iOS.

While dBpoweramp doesn’t exactly let you play FLAC files in iTunes, it comes as close as you can get. This tool quickly and easily converts FLAC files to Apple Lossless (ALAC) files. ALAC files should be equivalent to the original versions and have the added benefit of being compatible with iTunes.