US sites for purchasing lossless downloads

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by mwheelerk, Jul 18, 2020.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music... Thread Starter

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    I know that I can by lossless downloads (in my case Apple Lossless/ALAC) from Bandcamp and there is some availability of 16/44 downloads from HD Tracks. Are there other music sites that sell lossless downloads (not including the individual artist sites)?
     
  2. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    TIDAL Store (store.tidal.com).

    But keep in mind that their FLAC offerings are sometimes significantly more expensive that just buying the CD and ripping it.
     
    c-eling likes this.
  3. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    And possibly MP3's converted to FLAC.
    I found one and they'll never receive a dime from me again. I offered proof and they wouldn't refund or drop the price.
    They offered both as a choice, the so called loss-less at a premium.

    Bleep/7digital offers lossless when applicable.
     
    Gaslight likes this.
  4. PTgraphics

    PTgraphics Senior Member

    Qobuz has a download store. Many cases you can buy an individual track or whole album in lossless.
     
    c-eling likes this.
  5. Cherrycherry

    Cherrycherry Forum Resident

    Location:
    Le Froidtown
    Would you mind sharng what title/track and when? Is it still up?
    Mistakes are made, sometimes, but that sounds maddening.
     
  6. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    It's maddening because I payed a premium price for lossless and it was a damn mp3 was wrapped in a FLAC container.
    Gave proof and they refused any type of refund, yeah I'm still pi$$ed
    Men Without Hats-Folk of The 80's
    About as bad as Miles left channel bias on his 1/2 speeds :D
     
    Cherrycherry likes this.
  7. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    Yikes

    Thanks for that....scratching them off my lossless list now.
     
    c-eling and eric777 like this.
  8. eric777

    eric777 Astral Projectionist

    If they are upsampled on one site they will be upsampled on all the sites. I have been down that road before.
     
    Gaslight likes this.
  9. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    I'd just be weary Gas. Tough to know who's to blame on this one, the vendor or Tidal. (both)
    Been a few years since I checked, but you're right, they are very expensive.
     
    Gaslight likes this.
  10. Joint Attention

    Joint Attention Forum Resident

    Location:
    Gig Harbor, WA
    Tidal
    Qobuz
    7digital
    HD Tracks
    Acoustic Sounds
    Pro Studio Masters

    Qobuz usually has the best price, but sometimes HD Tracks or Pro Studio Masters is cheaper with a coupon code.

    Fair warning about upsampling on Tidal, I guess, but I have bought the same tracks from both Tidal and Qobuz and run checksums on them as an experiment. In the few cases I tried, they were bit-for-bit identical.
     
    Gaslight and c-eling like this.
  11. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    It's why I literally never use them, but wanted to answer the OP's question.

    New CD prices are slowly rising, but when I can get a CD for ~$13 but the lossless copy is ~$18, and it's almost certainly the same 16/44.1k source, I'll opt for the CD every time.
     
    c-eling, Spitfire and rcsrich like this.
  12. InStepWithTheStars

    InStepWithTheStars It's a miracle, let it alter you

    Location:
    North Carolina
    7Digital often has stuff that you can't find on other sites. However, their download speeds are obscenely slow. Upwards of an hour for a 40-minute hi-res album. It's ridiculous. Unlike most, they also offer MP3s - sometimes that's all that's available, though.

    I prefer Qobuz even though their web store navigation is dreadful. The prices are much lower than HD Tracks (sometimes as much as $10 lower). Both Qobuz and 7Digital offer FLAC downloads at CD resolution, where something like HD Tracks is for hi-res only. I'm not aware of any other sites that do CD quality.

    Bandcamp is great, but of course you won't find big name artists on there. Also, it's on the artist to upload the proper files, and frequently they'll just upload MP3s.

    Those are the only three I've used. I avoid 7Digital because of their horrible download speed, but they have the best web design. Qobuz has awful design but the best prices, sometimes even less than 7D. For independent stuff, Bandcamp is great.
     
  13. followmehome

    followmehome Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    Yep - Tidal are only hosting what distributors have sent them. Often get such problems with bands who sell on Bandcamp - many younger band's don't understand or care that you shouldn't just convert an mp3 to WAV to upload music..... coz it's really HARD to find the original master files.
     
    eric777 likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine