Why 2021 is the year of the AIFF
When pitching your music for sync, it pays to always have high-quality audio available for when your tracks get to the pointy end of a search. But which format should you use?
The most commonly used high-quality audio formats are WAV and AIFF. Though both formats have been around for around 40 years, WAVs are ubiquitous because they’re the primary format used in the music industry supply chain, which means WAVs are often the format tracks are initially created in.
The key difference between the two formats comes down to metadata. WAVs, due to some unfortunate decisions made in the ‘90s, don’t really carry metadata. (It’s technically possible for them to store metadata, but both parties exchanging the files really need to know what they’re doing.) This means, if you spend precious time entering key metadata for your tracks and then share WAVs, that metadata might not be present on the downloaded file.
AIFFs don’t have this limitation. They reliably carry all the metadata on your track in a way that can be read by common audio metadata readers. They’re also high-quality enough to be used in broadcast and to satisfy the audiophiles among us.
Are there any drawbacks to using AIFFs?
There are two (sometimes disputed) drawbacks to using AIFFs in the industry. WAV was designed in collaboration by Microsoft and IBM, and AIFF was Apple’s answer to that seven years later. Because of this, AIFF doesn’t have the support WAV has outside the Apple ecosystem. However, AIFF is still commonly accepted these days, even on Windows, with common players such as Windows Media Player supporting it. Modern cloud-based tools like DISCO also tend to support both.
Because files are so often created as WAVs initially, historically, there was some overhead in creating AIFFs of your music. Once upon a time, you might have had to labour in iTunes to create WAVs. Now, tools like DISCO make that easier than ever. DISCO’s WAV>AIFF features automatically serve up a metadata-rich AIFF version of any WAV you upload.
“The general caution around AIFF is that it’s Mac-centric or requires the receiver of the file to have the appropriate software to fully utilize the metadata,” music producer Koichi says. “The reality in the context of a program like DISCO, which is a specialized and purpose-built tool, AIFF should always win because you’re approaching the decision from the context of ‘How do I make sure I’m collecting everything that’s owed to me?’.”
A new industry standard
Everyone in the music and entertainment industries is strapped for time. The easier you make their lives, the more attention your music is likely to get.
Music supervisor Michael Sherwood shared, “We can make anything work if we really want to, but the more frictionless the process of getting your music into the edit is, the more likely it will happen. To use an analogy, an AIFF is like a commercially packaged CD, clearly labeled and nice to interact with, while a WAV is like a burned CD with the album name scribbled on the cover. Both technically contain the same audio, but I know which I’d rather receive.”
With AIFFs, Michael added, “I can positively identify a file long after I received it. AIFFs save everyone loads of time and ensure that we’re receiving a properly encoded file. The audio within AIFF and WAV files are essentially identical. There’s absolutely no reason to send the kind that can’t carry metadata.”
Proper metadata is essential to keeping the sync machine running smoothly, and using AIFF files can help nudge your tracks to the top of the consideration queue. With tools like DISCO making it easy to convert your catalog, why not utilize the more versatile AIFF?
Want to include AIFFs in your music library? Contact support@disco.ac to set it up today.
