Lossless Files - CD Quality Format
Lossless is a type of format that allows the file to be compressed without losing any data, i.e. sound. It works by ‘zipping’ the file before compression, creating a smaller file but without loss of data, hence ‘lossless’. The sound quality is exactly the same as on a CD, with no deterioration, but the file size is roughly half that of a normal CD. For instance an album in mp3 would average 150mb in file size; the lossless equivalent would be 250mb. Download times vary between thirty-five minutes on a 1mb internet connection to only five minutes for an 8mb connection for an average CD. Needless to say, Lossless is ideally suited to classical music which requires the best possible sound quality.
We currently support four forms of Lossless Files:
WMA
WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a universally accepted format designed by Microsoft to give higher quality sound with smaller file sizes. WMA is now an accepted alternative to MP3, particularly as it can be played on most MP3 players without conversion.WMA Lossless files can be imported into most PC audio programmes including iTunes and Windows Media Player. iTunes converts into Apple lossless on import into PCs, making it compatible with iPods. However it is not compatible with MAC computers unless it is converted into a MAC friendly format.
FLAC
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed without any loss in quality. The sound is very natural and clear because FLAC is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back the files in your favourite player (or your car or home stereo, if supported by the device) just like you would an MP3 file. FLAC supports tagging and is supported on most operating systems, including Windows, 'unix' (Linux, BSD, Solaris, IRIX), BeOS, and MAC OS X.
WAV
WAV (or WAVE), short for Waveform Audio Format, is the main format used on systems for raw and typically uncompressed audio. WAVs are compatible with both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. WAV files are quite large in size; the same as that of CD however, they are a commonly used, relatively pure, lossless file type, suitable for retaining first generation archived files of high quality, or use on a system where high fidelity sound is required and disk space is not restricted.
AIFF
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) is most commonly used on Apple Macintosh computer systems. AIFF is a leading format (along with WAV) used by professional-level audio and video applications. Like any non-compressed, lossless format, it uses much more disk space than MP3 - about 10mb for one minute of stereo audio at a sample rate of 44.1 k and a bit depth of 16 bits. Apple uses AIFF files as the standard for iTunes on both the PC and MAC variants.
For MAC users we recommend the AIFF Lossless files which are fully compatible.
