Audio format
The APE format
APE is lossless audio squeezed slightly smaller than FLAC. Monkey’s Audio appeared in 2000 as a lossless codec with very high compression, popular for CD rips.
When to use APE
Convert APE rips to FLAC to keep them lossless and playable almost everywhere.
It is best for archived CD rips where every megabyte counted, and it opens on foobar2000, VLC and some Android players.
How to open it: foobar2000, VLC and Poweramp open APE files.
| Full name | Monkey’s Audio |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .ape |
| MIME type | audio/ape |
| Introduced | 2000 |
| Compression | Lossless |
| Typical quality | lossless |
| Support | Specialist format |
| Typical size | About 5–6 MB a minute for music |
Good at
- Lossless, a little smaller than FLAC
Not so good at
- Slow to decode
- Hardly any phones, cars or mainstream apps support it
The common mistake
APE rips often come as one long file with a .cue sheet listing the tracks; converting gives you one long track unless you split it.
Questions
What is an APE file?
APE (Monkey’s Audio) is lossless audio squeezed slightly smaller than FLAC. Monkey’s Audio appeared in 2000 as a lossless codec with very high compression, popular for CD rips.
How do I open an APE file?
foobar2000, VLC and Poweramp open APE files.