CDBaby offering Lossless downloads.

[funkle]

I've just discovered that CD Baby has made all their downloadable albums available in lossless (44.1/16 flac). This is really great news for me. They have an extensive catalog containing lots of the obscure stuff I like. I'm sure I'll be dropping lots of money there.

 

I purchases 3 albums yesterday, only to find the flac downloads were not immediately available. It seems they must rip the CDs as they became requested. They worked this morning. A little bit of a let down, but cool nonetheless. I hope this becomes less of a problem as more cds get transcoded.

[stewboss]

The album I was interested was available in 3 formats including flac but when I click on download, the checkout window only says mp3. I didn't go any further.

[funkle]

I was thrown by that at first as well. After you complete the transaction, you are directed to the download area of your account, where each download has a pulldown menu where you select from 3 formats: MP3, MP3-320 or FLAC. I think they need to change the wording from mp3 to something like "digital download"

[jtk]

I just purchased a couple of albums and the flac downloads were not immediately available also. I'm happy to wait though, as these flacs will replace mp3s and the CDs of these albums are out of print and not readily available at a reasonable price (or at all). It's great to have more options for quality downloads!

[Musicophile]

Just did my first purchase at CDBaby, Emmet Cohen's In the Element, that's so heavily promoted by certain people here that have excellent taste.

 

I was positively surprised that a) I actually could purchase from Europe, b) how easy the process was, and c) that you can really purchase lossless downloads at $9.99, the equivalent of €7.50. The typical price over here at e.g. Qobuz is more likely to be around €10 upwards.

 

It would be just nice if they have a decent downloader, and I was initially put off by the fact that what I downloaded appeared to have only MP3. I only later found the selector where to choose which file format to actually download.

[flatmap]

I've found them to be a reliable vendor and have made several purchases. Granted, it's not high resolution, but very nice to have these choices to download at CD quality.

 

There are several of the US military band recordings offered at no charge. If you like this kind of thing, I thought this one was excellent in terms of sound and performance quality: Full Circle: The United States Air Force Academy Band Stellar Brass | Full Circle | CD Baby Music Store

 

Also a real find, were the standard-priced recordings of young US jazz musician Grace Kelly. This album, performed with Lee Konitz, is very very good -- Gracefullee: Grace Kelly | Gracefullee | CD Baby Music Store

 

I found a nice "surf music" collection, including Aqualads, Retroliners, and Cosmonauti.

 

While I spend most of my money at eClassical (high res and standard res), I've found a lot to like with CDBaby, for my non classical needs. Oh, and if you happen to be a trombone nut, then both of Tommy Pederson's albums are here! E.g., All My Friends are Trombone Players: Tommy Pederson | All My Friends Are Trombone Players | CD Baby Music Store

[wwaldmanfan]

The downloader is a little clumsy. You might get an error message, but if you return to the checkout screen the files should be available, with the pull-down choice of formats, as stated. Note you can only download one album at a time, if you make multiple purchases. However, a nice feature of this site is that you can go back at a later date, access your account, and re-download your previous purchases. You certainly can't do that on HDtracks.