

You can always convert lossless audio to a lossy format, but you can't convert lossy audio back into higher-quality lossless formats. Lossless formats also allow you to future-proof your audio, should you ever acquire better equipment for listening. That said, if storage space isn't an issue and you have high-quality speakers or headphones, a lossless format might be the way to go. As long as you don't set the bitrate too low, it's unlikely you'll be able to tell much difference between lossless and lossy audio, especially if you're listening on your phone through earbuds.

Lossy formats are fine in most situations. This reduces the overall sound quality, but also makes it a much smaller file and therefore easier on your hard drive.

The first step to reducing the size of audio files is to recognize whether your audio is "lossless" or "lossy". Should You Choose Lossless or Lossy Audio Compression? How To Import m4a Files In Audacity EZ Tutorials 9.
