Chrome 56 beta, expected to be released in a week, adds native support for FLAC music format
Abner Li / 9to5Google :
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's browser has been steadily reworking how it handles media: a month earlier, Chrome 55 brought offline downloads of music and video on Android, and the FLAC addition in the Chrome 56 beta extends that push from storage to playback quality. Native lossless audio in the browser means sites no longer need plugin-based players to serve hi-fi streams.
First-order effects
- Music and audio streaming sites gain a codec they can ship without third-party players or extensions, since Chrome itself decodes FLAC once version 56 ships.
Second-order effects
- Rival browsers face pressure to match native FLAC support or cede the lossless-audio web to Chrome, and streaming services get a reason to weigh lossless tiers against bandwidth costs.
Third-order effects
- The move fits Google's pattern of using Chrome releases to set web media policy unilaterally — later codified in Chrome 66's default blocking of autoplaying sound — making the browser, not site developers, the arbiter of how audio reaches users.
The trend: Chrome is consolidating its role as the de facto standard-setter for web media, deciding which formats play natively and under what conditions.