Where to download music with lossless compression?

Carlman · « **on:** 10 Sep 2005, 08:40 pm »

Does anyone have any recommendations on where to buy/download music that's either in .wav, .flac, or apple lossless formats? All I can find is AAC/mpeg4 and mp3. That's like paying more for less to me. (no package, poor sound quality, and higher price than the cd)

So, recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks,
Carl

zybar · « **Reply #1 on:** 10 Sep 2005, 08:50 pm »

Quote from: Carlman

Does anyone have any recommendations on where to buy/download music that's either in .wav, .flac, or apple lossless formats? All I can find is AAC/mpeg4 and mp3. That's like paying more for less to me. (no package, poor sound quality, and higher price than the cd)

So, recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks,
Carl

What kind of music?

You can download in FLAC lots of Dead and Phish form their respective sites. Other artists as well are starting to offer FLAC downloads.

George

Carlman · « **Reply #2 on:** 10 Sep 2005, 09:14 pm »

All kinds.. I'm looking for a replacement to buying cd's at the cd store... or Amazon. And, I want good quality, just like what's on a cd... but without having to buy a plastic case, cover, disk, etc.. I'm sure the record companies have all the .wav files on servers somewhere of the cd's they've made. How do I buy those?

-C

Tirade · « **Reply #3 on:** 10 Sep 2005, 09:45 pm »

Only allofmp3.com offers CD downloads in FLAC format and they have a collection thats close to the size of itunes.

However some people frown on allofmp3.com even though its legal because its located in Russia.

Either way, Ive used them and the price cant be beat.

Tirade · « **Reply #4 on:** 10 Sep 2005, 10:56 pm »

Quote from: tvad4

Be careful using your credit card to pay for anything based in Russia. It's well documented that Russia is a hotbed for stolen credit card information, and low priced music downloads would seem to be the perfect enticement to get folks to enter their credit card info.

Ive been using allofmp3.com for over 3 years. I originally signed up using paypal and now use my CC.

Maybe its not for everyone but its definately legit and secure.

ScottMayo · « **Reply #5 on:** 10 Sep 2005, 11:45 pm »

Quote from: Tirade

Ive been using allofmp3.com for over 3 years. I originally signed up using paypal and now use my CC.

Maybe its not for everyone but its definately legit and secure.

There is an interesting kind of scam coming someday. It hasn't happened yet (AFAIK), but it's a guarantee that it will happen eventually, with international law being the hodgepodge it is. It will run like this:

Company X sells some cheap and popular commodity (like music) internationally, taking credit information. X is well run, legit and concerned about security - they even encrypt your credit card data. Which is overkill, because their financial systems are on an isolated, private network. Hackproof. The perfect company to do business with. Over a decade they collect millions of credit cards.

Total slime Y, then buys X. Twelve hours later, X no longer exists, because:

1) he's raided it of every penny it has, and sold off what few physical assets it had. Ka-ching.

2) he's fired everyone, except the CFO who will subsequently be found scuba-diving somewhere without a pulse.

3) he's mined out every single credit card number, passed many, many thousands of the very best ones to ten of his associates in various profitable countries, and they all spend that twelve hours using them very, very profitably to accumulate various securities, which they immediately flip at a minor "loss" for cash. Very, very big ka-ching.

4) He then flees the country, with what could conservatively be estimated many millions in stolen value, having already set himself up a bolthole somewhere very, very comfortable in a country lacking extradition laws.

There's a growing number of companies who's intrinsic value is basically nothing, compared to the value of the credit card information they've accumulated.

Sleep well.

CornellAlum · « **Reply #6 on:** 11 Sep 2005, 12:06 am »

Man, I cannot believe you guys do not know about archive.org. Lot's of the stuff I have taped is up there the roundabout way too!

Jon L · « **Reply #7 on:** 11 Sep 2005, 12:49 am »

I use allofmp3 for FLAC downloads of CD's I would normally not buy myself, such as hip hop, certain rock, etc. It works fine and I haven't had any problems yet.

Couple of issues.

Their Flac downloads do NOT have ID3 tags. If you want tags, you need to type them in yourself. I'm doing this with Tag & Rename, but it's a pain.

Sound quality. I've compared my own Flac files (EAC from CD) to allofamp3 Flac files of same songs. They do not sound the same. I wouldn't go as far as to say their Flac files are worse per se, but I find them A) couple dB louder, B) more bassy/bloomy (can be good or bad), C) perhaps smidgen rounder/bloomier in mids with maybe an ounce less laser like cleanliness.

Doublej · « **Reply #8 on:** 11 Sep 2005, 12:51 pm »

What media players can play FLAC files? Will it work with Itunes, Real Player, Microsoft Media player and if I need a codec where can I find one?

flintstone · « **Reply #9 on:** 11 Sep 2005, 01:22 pm »

A little hard to figure out at first for me, but....I've downloaded some great music (free) from here.

http://wiki.etree.org/

http://www.archive.org/audio/

All live stuff and many unknown bands (not all though). FLAC and SHN files can be converted to wave or just played as are on your computer, as is.

If you like hard driving Blues/Rock...live....Start with the "Jason Ricci Live" show you can find at the second link.

Dave

mojoman · « **Reply #10 on:** 12 Sep 2005, 06:54 pm »

Quote from: flintstone

A little hard to figure out at first for me, but....I've downloaded some great music (free) from here.

http://wiki.etree.org/

http://www.archive.org/audio/

All live stuff and many unknown bands (not all though). FLAC and SHN files can be converted to wave or just played as are on your computer, as is.

If you like hard driving Blues/Rock...live....Start with the "Jason Ricci Live" show you can find at the second link.

Dave

I second this. I've found some excellent shows here. Keep in mind that most of these downloads are close to a gig in size so it helps to have a good FTP client to do the downloads. I use SmartFTP, www.smartftp.com, and it works well. Almost all shows are stored in either flac or shn formats. Nero has plugins that will let you burn cds direct from these formats so you don't even have to convert them. Other burners probably offer the same but Nero happens to be the one I use.

A couple of shows I like include Agents of Good Roots Live at Alley Katz on 2000-05-31 and Drive-By Truckers live at Cat's Cradle on 10/10/03.

WerTicus · « **Reply #11 on:** 5 Oct 2005, 11:22 pm »

http://www.allofmp3.com/

use it to buy all my music in recent times. A lot is not lossless but a lot is -you need to look for there EOEX type music

they also have EO which is up to 500kb OGG's which is pretty damn high quality as far as compressed goes..

press ENG up the top if you cannot read russian.

miklorsmith · « **Reply #12 on:** 5 Oct 2005, 11:25 pm »

http://musicgiants.com/

These guys claim to be the only lossless download site.

WerTicus · « **Reply #13 on:** 6 Oct 2005, 04:25 am »

yeah but yuck its WMA format there

all of mp3 has WAV if you want it - but i choose FLAC mostly since its loss less and they charge per mB

very cheap btw

0.02c US a mb!
which looks to be cheaper than the above site..

also, and this is important to me - all of mp3 gives no money to the RIAA and russian law allows this, which is nice to know because i would prefer they go the way of the dinosaur.