Barbara, only specialist hardware/software can play FLAC files. These files are primarily used to send and receive over the airwaves cos they are compressed -but better compressed (tho not smaller)than MP3s because they (supposedly) dont loose any of the original quality.

So once you receive a Flac file, you decompress it (import) to so that you can then "play" with it. Or if finished, turn it into MP3 or WMA to put onto a portable player or Wav for CDs. I think the main claim of compressed FLAC files is that they are "loseless" whereas MP3s canot claim that feature, and quality may suffer.

Hope this helps
Bradfordian