Formats
What OVO plays.
A local collection is usually a mix of formats collected over many years. These are the common ones, and what each is actually for.
Reference
Formats and what they mean.
| Format | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| FLAC | Lossless | Common for archived rips and downloads from artist stores. Larger files, no quality loss from the source. |
| ALAC | Lossless | Apple's lossless format. A natural fit for a collection built around Apple devices. |
| WAV | Uncompressed | Raw audio with minimal metadata support, so tagging is often the weak point. |
| AIFF | Uncompressed | Uncompressed with better tag support than WAV. |
| MP3 | Lossy | The format most long-standing collections are made of. Quality depends on the bitrate it was encoded at. |
| AAC / M4A | Lossy codec, mixed container | AAC is an efficient lossy codec used widely across Apple platforms. M4A is only the container: an .m4a file can hold lossy AAC or lossless ALAC, so check the codec inside rather than the extension. |
Get OVO on the App Store
OVO is an iPhone-first music player that also runs on iPad and Apple Watch. Download it, point it at the music you already own, and start listening.