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Introduction

For independent musicians and web developers, FLAC is a popular choice for source audio due to its lossless compression, high audio quality, and robust metadata (tagging) capabilities. If you run your own music site using Faircamp, you might wonder:

• What happens to my embedded FLAC tags when I use Faircamp?
• Will listeners who download FLAC from my site receive files with all original tags and cover art?

This article will answer these questions and walk you through best practices for tag management in Faircamp.

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What Are FLAC Tags?

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files allow you to embed rich metadata, artist, album, song title, track number, cover art, and even custom fields. Most media players and library apps rely on these tags to organize and display your music properly.

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How Does Faircamp Handle FLAC Metadata?

Faircamp fully supports FLAC as a master/source format.
Any FLAC file you upload, with embedded tags and artwork, can serve as the origin for your release.

However, by default,

• Downloaded or preview-transcoded files will only include a minimal set of tags, such as title, artist, track, and album.
• Additional or custom tags (including embedded cover images) may be lost unless specifically configured otherwise.

This is because Faircamp’s default behavior is to re-generate only the metadata it needs for the web interface and catalog.

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How to Preserve All FLAC Tags in Downloads

Faircamp supports a feature via your release manifest:

• The tags: copy directive.
• By using this, Faircamp will copy all embedded tags and metadata, including cover artwork and custom fields, from your source FLAC directly into the downloadable version.

This means users who download from your Faircamp site will get FLAC files with all your original tags perfectly intact.

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Configuration Example: Enable tags: copy

Just add the following to your release.eno manifest file:

tags: copy

With this, Faircamp will preserve complete metadata in exported downloads.

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Important Notes

• If you don’t use tags: copy, most tags, besides those Faircamp re-creates, will be discarded in downloads or previews.
• This applies to MP3, Opus, and other formats as well, so always check metadata behavior for your target file types if you want to preserve custom tags or artwork.

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Best Practices

• Always embed proper tags and high-quality artwork into your source FLAC files.
• Set tags: copy in your release manifest for full tag preservation.
• Verify the downloaded files with a tagging tool or music library app to ensure metadata is preserved as expected.

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Summary

• By default, Faircamp only writes minimal tags to downloads.
• With tags: copy, you can ensure all original FLAC metadata and cover art stays intact for your listeners.

For anyone distributing high-quality, well-tagged releases on a self-hosted music platform, this is a must-know configuration.

I used to host my music on Bandcamp, but there was always a nagging concern. If the platform went down, or if my account got suddenly suspended, all of my music could disappear overnight. That security was always tied to dependency, and dependency comes with risk.

Self‑hosting with WordPress never felt like a real solution either. Endless plugins, theme tweaking, keeping security patches in place, ongoing maintenance… it quickly became more about babysitting a CMS than actually sharing music. The balance was always wrong.

Then I discovered Faircamp. It’s a static site generator for music releases: a clean Bandcamp‑like interface, but fully hosted on my own server. The setup is lightweight, and if you’re comfortable with repositories and static site tools, it’s basically plug‑and‑play.

Before switching, my workflow was painful. I kept backups on my local machine, then uploaded everything manually to the server each time. Preparing separate low‑bitrate or preview files was another chore, so every release involved repetitive busywork.
With Faircamp, this entire layer just disappeared. Drop in the original audio and it automatically generates multiple formats for distribution and streaming previews. What used to be a collection of fragmented manual tasks is now fully scripted and automated. Publishing feels like a single motion instead of a dozen.

This entirely changes the equation:

• I keep full ownership and control of my audio files
• Listeners get a smooth Bandcamp‑style interface
• Updates are just static file generation — fast and stable
• Automatic conversion handles distribution and preview formats

In short: having my own Bandcamp, but on my own server.

From here forward, Faircamp will be my new music home, while Bandcamp and other streaming outlets play the role of “entry points.” The core stays with me, under my control.
For the first time, my music feels safe, independent, and truly rooted in a space I own.

My Faircamp Page: https://genxbeats.com