List Audiophile Quality Download Sites

6. Deutsche Grammophon just announced higher quality downloads. But they are only 320 kbps mp3 files. No DRM though.

- Chris
Computer Audiophile | Turn Down The Silence

Linn Records High Resolution Downloads - Editor's Choice 2007

Highlighting Linn Records' commitment to improving the quality of digital music, highly-regarded HiFi magazine Stereophile has just published Award details for Linn Records High Quality Music Downloads which won the Editor's Choice award.

"The Linn downloads are all taken from their own catalogue; my hat is off to [Linn] for leading audiophiles-and me!-into the brave new world of high-resolution downloads."

- Chris
Computer Audiophile | Turn Down The Silence

7. Beatport (http://www.beatport.com)

Beatport is the first authentic digital music store designed to service the evolution of the digital music culture, redefining how DJs and enthusiasts acquire their music. Beatport.com allows users to access the world of club music through secure, legal, hi-speed, high quality downloads in MP3, MP4 and WAV formats on a pay per download basis. With hundreds of labels and thousands of users world wide, Beatport is recognized as the leader for online, electronic dance music.

If anyone has a review please let us now how this site is.

- Chris
Computer Audiophile | Turn Down The Silence

8. High Definition Tape Transfers (HDTT) is a site that offers 24/96 high resolution downloads. At first blush their selection didn't do it for me. However, after obtaining additional information about HDTT and their process I think it is a disservice to focus on selection over quality. It is almost antithetical to audiophile morals :-) Quality is always more important than quantity. I hope to have a full review of their rare classical recordings that have been praised by many in the high end industry. Here is a link to their free full resolution samples.

For those of you looking for the physical media HDTT offers offer all of their releases in CD, 24/96 DVD and of course 24/96 download.

Also, here is some information directly from HDTT:
"Like vinyl, analog tape is a relatively neglected storage medium now enjoying a renaissance, due to the enlightened efforts of a growing alliance of audiophiles and "tapeaholics." High Definition Tape Transfer is the brainchild of an avid 2 & 4 track open reel collector who is also a serious audiophile. Collected over the years, many tapes contain forgotten performances of historical importance, with unusually good sound quality when played back through modern, state of the art music systems.
Contrary to what some "experts" might say, we have found that every one of the numerous techniques and aspects of the HDTT transcription process makes important, audible contributions to the quality of the encoded digital signal."

- Chris
Computer Audiophile | Turn Down The Silence

9. Gimell Records
Website

Sample downloads from gimell.com

MP3 320kbps MP3
CD Quality 16 bit - 44.1 KHz WMA or FLAC
Studio Master 24 bit - 44.1 KHz WMA or FLAC
Studio Master 24 bit - 48.0 KHz WMA or FLAC
Studio Master Pro 24 bit - 88.2 KHz WMA or FLAC
Studio Master Pro 24 bit - 96.0 KHz WMA or FLAC

Sample information

- Chris
Computer Audiophile | Turn Down The Silence

They have lossless FLAC downloads.

From http://www.mindawn.com
In the summer of 1999, Shawn Gordon founded theKompany.com, a software company specializing in creating developer and desktop software for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. TheKompany.com develops both commercial and open source software.

In late 2001, Sharp introduced their Zaurus line of embedded Linux-based PDAs. TheKompany.com jumped on this exciting new platform, creating nearly 40 embedded applications for the device. This led to the development of portable media players supporting both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis, in both standalone and streaming formats, in addition to the development of extensive video playback technology.

In the summer of 2002, Mr. Gordon followed his long passion for progressive rock music and acquired the popular internet radio station ProgRock.com. One of his first acts was to switch it from MP3 streams to Ogg Vorbis streams. This also led to the development of the freely available tkcOggRipper, with which the user can easily rip CDs to Ogg Vorbis files on Linux and Windows.

In late 2002, Shawn followed what to him seemed a logical evolution and founded ProgRock Records as a way to help nurture and support some of the fantastic music coming out of this often overlooked community.

After many brainstorming sessions with some of the ProgRock Records artists and theKompany.com software developers, we realized that we already had most of the technology we needed to pull this off effectively. Now we also had a financial model that also made sense to artists and consumers alike -- so it was time to realize the dream and make it real.

Mindawn was launched in September 2004 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of theKompany.com, Inc.

"Pristine Classical is the biggest historical music download site on the Internet. There are hundreds of recordings to choose from, all with substantial full-quality audio previews. Download CD covers and choose between high quality MP3 files or lossless FLAC files for true CD-quality downloads - or order a CD, sent direct by priority airmail."

Pristine Classical

HDtracks

I would like to add Archive.org to the list. A friend of mine showed it to me last week, and it has a great live music section. Most of the artists are more obscure, but there are some great live shows from artists such as the Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh and Ryan Adams among others. Most of the shows can be downlaoded as FLAC files, some even have 24 bit files. I have downloaded a couple of shows, and the sound quality is scary good.

Do you have a link to the audiophile downloads for Naxos?

The only thing I can find is 128 kbps mp3.

Hmm, it looks like they aren't even offering any downloads right now. Everything is streamed only. Yuck!

Hello there again,
I´m surprised you did´nt mention 2L ,they have also started selling some true hi rez files.

I have downloaded their test files and they sound very promising.
Of the ones you list only one really offers hi rez, Linn!

Right now I´m listening to the whole set of Bach´s Brandenburger Concertos on a free download from Czech Radio
Flac files
Took about ten minutes to download on my new high speed connection.

http://www.rozhlas.cz/d-dur/download_eng

Maybe not the very best sound I´ve heard but quite clean and free of digital nasties it seems.
A bit closely recorded in what sounds like a studio,certainly not the Rudolfinum!

As far as pay sites are concerned there only seem to be TWO of any real interest out there as far as my tastes are concerned 2L and Linn.
And I already own several of the Linn recordings as SACDs .
The others keep promising hi rez or are promoting CD quality as hi rez!
Which is frankly quite misleading!
HD Tracks have been saying soon for quite long now!
But so far nothing !
Chrille

I agree promoting cd quality as high resolution is misleading. They should call it higher resolution because the resolution is obviously being compared to iTunes and those like it.

The HDtracks high resolution stuff iscoming shortly.

Also, it would seem Classics Online is offering only 192kbps.

I didn't see Magnatune anywhere on this list:

www.magnatune.com

They offer WAV downloads and, even more interesting, they let you pick how much you want to pay and offer all you can eat for $18/month.

http://www.bleep.com/ sell FLAC files of most music on their site, their parent label is Warp
Combined with MAX you can get lossless ALAC files

great site, thanks
Gavin

Thanks Chris for the update. Unfortunately, Holt's Law seems to be largely holding true so far. For those not familiar with him, J. Gordon Holt was the founder of Stereophile magazine as an effort to counter the tendency he observed at Audio magazine, where the cost of the advertising budget with the magazine seemed to influence the quality of the review.

To paraphrase Holt's Law states "The better the recording, the worse the performance". This is not to say that Linn et al do not have any worthwhile artists in their camp, it is just hard for me to get excited about hi rez until lots of performances are available. Or, as someone else said, it's the music, stupid. That last line does not refer to anyone on this site, just a concept.

Thanks Chris for the update. Unfortunately, Holt's Law seems to be largely holding true so far. For those not familiar with him, J. Gordon Holt was the founder of Stereophile magazine as an effort to counter the tendency he observed at Audio magazine, where the cost of the advertising budget with the magazine seemed to influence the quality of the review.

To paraphrase Holt's Law states "The better the recording, the worse the performance". This is not to say that Linn et al do not have any worthwhile artists in their camp, it is just hard for me to get excited about hi rez until lots of performances are available. Or, as someone else said, it's the music, stupid. That last line does not refer to anyone on this site, just a concept.

There's a good chance that this won't be news to anyone but a quick google search last week bought up a 3,000,000 track, DRM-free, WAV file download site:

http://www.mobiledjdownloads.com/index.php

I downloaded some tracks last night and the quality seems good.

Piers

PS I emailed them to enquire whether they might offer 24/96 tracks in the future and they said it was something they were considering...

I will cast in a vote for Beatport. Back in the day when I used to buy a lot of electronic music, I would go to Satellite Records in New York and buy vinyl. I amassed a collection of 10,000 records over a decade. In the late 1990s and into 2001, Satellite was the best shop in the country, and seemingly every DJ on the planet "knew" that vinyl was the only medium for mixing. It is amazing how fast that has changed. Sure, a lot of DJs still play from their vinyl collections, but more and more these days play from CDJs (e.g. the Pioneer CDJ 1000 mkIII, which we connect to high end DACs when they are used in professional environments). The more innovative ones play from their computers using tools like Ableton Live. Beatport allows DJs and electronic music lovers to download their favorite music in compressed MP3 (320kb) format, or for a slightly higher price, you can get the 16/44 WAV master files. Even though producers will record and mix at 24/44 or 24/88 (when mixing, dynamic range is a huge advantage, hence the use of 24bits), most mastering houses that deal with electronic dance music master at 16/44 -- at least that was my experience.

Anyhow, Beatport is great. I just wish the GUI was a little easier on the eyes! I myself produced some dance music back in the day, and some of it was released on Beatport. Sadly, the label that licensed my music went out of business (a very common occurrence in this genre), so it is no longer available on Beatport. So ... I have decided to make it freely available to everyone. Please follow this link to find my music if you're interested:

http://www.ciamara.com/music/

For now, I have "Digital Satisfaction" up there. Both versions are mastered. Over time, I'll add some of my other stuff if people are interested, though none of that stuff is mastered.

www.chandos.net offer some of their classical selection in FLAC/WAV/AIFF - sometimes one can even get one of their free monthly samples in lossless.

Note - they refer to high definition lossless, but this simply seems to me to mean 16/44.1 lossless from what I have been able to find.

I'd also add B&W's Society of Sound site, http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=777, to this list.

And Chris, doesn't the software on this forum allow addition of simple HTML pages and forms? The information in this list would be a LOT more useful if it was presented as a table with a simple form to add entries. The table columns could be Site Name, URL, Genre, Formats, Pricing (USD) and Comments.

Hi CharlyD - I'm working on a Wiki at this very moment that would allow all this stuff and of course freely editable content by registered users. Thanks for mentioning you are interested in a table style form.

24/88 downloads in AIFF and WMA formats of 4 new recordings conducted by Levine plus one Mozart chamber music album.

The remainder of their catalog is 320 kbs MP3 of historical concert archives, including Koussevitsky, Monteux, Munch, Cantelli, Kubelik, etc.

For $30 you can download their entire catalog, including the 5 new 24/88's and the historical recordings.

Yes Magnatune is a "not evil" where independent artists are paid 50% of the revenue, and customers are free to set their own price. They also sell membership for unlimited downloads. Good music available in FLAC and MP3. Also have free streaming to Squeezeboxes and iPhone. Very highly recommended. Good Classical.

DG also has a very nice download site with lossless downloads. The best part is unlike other labels, their downloads are for once cheaper than the physical CDs, which is the way it should be.

Chris,

Actually DG does sell FLAC files. Just do a search on their web site and may of the files there are FLAC based.

In fact, the entire 111 anniversary 55 disc boxset in FLAC is available at a bargain price

I don't think anyone has mentioned that Naim Records do High Resolution downloads.

Eloise

The catalogue is very limited, but Burning Shed has some FLAC downloads available for some of its artists. They just recently added several full Porcupine Tree albums for FLAC download. They're a great Brit prog rock outfit, so that may be worth checking out for some of you.

http://www.burningshed.com/

For classical fans, I didn't see the Philly Orchestra's Online Store mentioned above (may have missed it). They also make FLACs available of many past concerts.

http://www.thephiladelphiaorchestra.com/

The sound quality from files from both sites are excellent.

I checked out www.naimlabel.com and found Phantom Limb. Wow! A new fan here.

Good news, especially for us here in Denmark. Danish Dacapo Records have just offered their entire catalogue as download, with some hirez material, and more to come. Dacapo is devoted to Danish classical music, but their web site is in English. Although not an audiophile label, their SQ tends to be really good.

They're offering a free download of the day (http://www.dacapo-records.dk/news-free-download-of-the-day.aspx). Should you find something to your liking, they're offering a 50 % discount on all downloads through December. Use promotion code: DOWNLOADS-50-OFF.

I can recommend this album (unfortunately not available in hirez): http://www.dacapo-records.dk/recording-requiem.aspx.

"It's getting better all the time!"

Beatport has been mentioned but I find Juno has an excellent selection and good prices. Plus it's easier to navigate than other sites. They allow downloads in WAV of FLAC.

http://www.junodownload.com/

Boomkat is also worth a look as it has a reasonable selection of material available in FLAC format hidden amongst cd, vinyl and mp3 releases.

http://boomkat.com/downloads

An honourable mention goes to Sofaspace which has a small selection of downloads in FLAC format. The main attraction for me is that most of the releases are from the French "panoramic" ambient electronica label Ultimae (http://www.ultimae.com)

http://www.sofaspace.net/store/downloads-c-47.html

An interesting looking site that has some hidden gems in FLAC format;
http://www.musiczeit.com/

The Linn site has a 3 for 2 sale going on until Dec. 14th. Use promotion code 3FOR2. That's the good news.

The bad news is that their download speed (to US at least) is painfully slow. So far, 3 songs (24/88 FLAC) out of the 3 albums purchased have downloaded in about 4 hours (20kb/s on average). I have DSL which is usually decent on downloads so I doubt it is my DSL causing the issue.

I checked their help section that they acknowledged a slow download issue outside of Europe.

Hopefully, I will be able to enjoy my 3 new albums by the end of 2009.

Eric
www.beresford-dac.com

Crammed Disc appears to have most of their catalog available for download in FLAC format.
http://crammed.greedbag.com

a couple of possible entry points into the crammed catalog:
http://www.6moons.com/musicreviews/2009_march/zazou.html
http://www.crammed.be/index.php?id=37&rel_id=195

cheers
pj

David, I am subscribed to chandos' mailing list and I alway got only MP3s. How do you mange to get lossless file?

Sound Guy, I just have the usual newsletter with the free and special price offerings from Chandos. My newsletter of 1 or 2 quarters ago had an offer which, when I clicked to investigate, was available in the lossless format. That said, it was not something I was interested in, so I did not bother with the download - in hindsight, it is quite possible that, had I done so, I may have discovered the free version to have been limited to the mp3 format.

Apologies if I have erred.

Even more profound apologies if I caused you to think that somehow I was getting a more generous newsletter than you.

David, thanks for the clarification, the free versions are limited to MP3 AFAIK.

Will you please compile an up to date list of download sites and make it prominent on your site? I recently learned of two new ones: 2L and Hodie. It would be very helpful to have all these in a handy spot and regularly updated by you without having to sift thru all the comments. Thanks.