Play SHN files in your browser
The lossless format live concert tapers traded in the 1990s and 2000s. Play an SHN right here, without an old player. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your sound starts playing the moment it opens, its whole waveform across your screen.
- Its whole waveform • Press or drag to jump
- Back and ahead 10 seconds • Half, 1.5× or double speed
- Show tags • Title, artist, album and cover
- Export • Save as MP3 or WAV
About SHN
Tony Robinson wrote Shorten in 1993 to compress speech recordings without losing anything. Fans who traded live concert recordings, of the Grateful Dead and many others, made SHN their format, and archives still hold thousands.
Shorten predicts each sample from the ones before and keeps only the difference, saving about half the size of a WAV with every bit kept. FLAC later replaced it.
No browser or current player plays SHN by itself. Filepeek decodes it with FFmpeg inside your browser, and Export saves a WAV or an MP3.
Shorten
.shn
Format
- MIME type
- application/octet-stream
- Made by
- Tony Robinson, at SoftSound
- Released
- 1993
Inside the file
- Audio
- Lossless
- Size
- About half a WAV
- Bit depth
- 8 or 16 bit
- Followed by
- FLAC
Opens in every browser
No browser plays SHN by itself. Filepeek decodes it with FFmpeg in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari.
- YouChromePlays through Filepeek
- YouEdgePlays through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxPlays through Filepeek
- YouSafariPlays through Filepeek
Questions
How do I play SHN files?
Drop them on this page or press Peek an SHN. A whole show plays in the file list, track by track.
Can I convert SHN to something newer?
Yes. Choose Export, then Save as WAV to keep every bit, or MP3 for a smaller file.
Is it really lossless?
Yes. The sound decodes to exactly the samples that were recorded.
Is my recording uploaded?
No. The recording opens inside your browser and never leaves your device.