Best File Type to Download Music

Download music formats
different types, compression and uploads

• Why apply different formats?
• More open download formats
• Less open download formats
• Masters and compressed copies
  • Concatenation loss
  • Format convertors
• Uploading your downloads
  • Music download file sizes
  • MP3 web server space
  • Downloading or streaming?
• Online releases
  • Packaging and paperwork
  • Getting your tracks onto the Internet
  • Download sites and aggregators

Why apply different formats?

In 1995 the only compressed audio format for public utilise on the spider web was MP3, and sharing full bandwidth music files over dial-up connections was completely out of the question. Today there is a bewildering array of formats. Broadband is available to 20 million households and about forty million people in the United kingdom, and about 2 billion people globally (2010). MP3 or AAC are still the most mutual download formats so things haven't inverse a lot in practice.

Broadband will make bigger files and lossless encoding increasingly feasible, and new high-compression formats like Ogg Vorbis and MP4 (Advanced Sound Coding, AAC) have a number of advantages, simply they're not for universal utilise just yet.

More open up download formats

In that location are many file formats. These are the main, more open formats. This means they are independent of detail manufacturers, easy to move between operating systems and more widely attainable.

Ogg FLAC and Vorbis are proper open standards. FLAC is a lossless codec and compresses a CD to most half the original size. Vorbis is a lossy codec and compresses to effectually 10% like MP3 but sounds better. There is no danger of Ogg being limited by its owners and information technology is increasingly popular but still less common than MP3.

Full bandwidth music files from unprotected CDs play on about jukebox software and are now feasible but still lengthy downloads on fast broadband. They are easily stored in WAV or AIFF (PCM) formats which are hands translated between platforms without loss of quality.

MP3 is all the same the best fashion to put music on your web site. Proprietary formats similar Flash, Real Audio, Quicktime (QT) and even Windows Media Sound (WMA) accept a smaller audition. Most PCs, Macs and other systems (e.grand. Linux) can play MP3s and they're as pocket-sized y'all can go with today's compression—nigh x% of the equivalent CD file size. The downside of MP3 is audio quality but if you want to be heard by the largest audience it'south the only choice for dissemination from your site. I wouldn't sell MP3 because AAC, WMA and Ogg are just every bit easy to make and sound much better.

MP3 isn't an open standard and the owners could charge for it in some way. Simply I group information technology with "more than open" formats for now.

Less open download formats

These are the main proprietary file formats. This means they are dependent on certain manufacturers, less easy to move and lack universal access.

With shellac, vinyl, CD and cassette, people became used to universal, play-anywhere media they could copy. Mainstream Net music is yet very archaic and there are many barriers to useability.

Proprietary formats include Real, Apple AAC, Sony ATRAC, and Windows Media with various DRM options. Some of these are licensed (Windows, Sony) others aren't (Apple). All have a limited audience and most are only available through particular players. Download aggregators help to reduce this complexity for content providers, and it is possible to offer these formats without encoding them all yourself.

Multimedia formats include Apple tree Quicktime, MS Windows Media, Macromedia Flash or Shockwave. These formats use more expensive authoring software and have a smaller audience.

Real Audio is a RealNetworks proprietary file format compressed using a system called CELP. Basic Existent encoders and players are available free. Media files are compressed past matching slices of information against a library of waveforms and replacing them with codes. These codes are turned back into media information past looking up the same library in the actor. CELP is as well used in mobile phones. Real player advertisement and registration are quite intrusive for users and a significant department of the online community only won't install information technology.

RealNetworks products and web sites use and play a number of other codecs beside Real Sound, including WMA and AAC (non the Apple tree flavour).

MiniDisc (discontinued in mid-2007) was a consumer format controlled by Sony which used compression chosen ATRAC. It had built-in copy-protection (SDMI) and interface limitations to prevent sharing ATRAC files. The OpenMG jukebox and EMB Internet connection used by NetMD were also designed to lock-down content, even on domestic recordings.

WeedShare, PassAlong and other files of this type wrapped sound in cascading DRM that paid content owners and users for onward sharing and sales. These were proprietary when they used WMA and required Windows (they were not cantankerous-platform). As far equally I know this kind of file-sharing format is at present extinct.

Masters and compressed copies

It is best to regard PCM/CD (WAV, AIFF) files as masters and any compressed copies as one-offs for a specific purpose. The masters can hands be moved, copied and converted without affecting the quality.

Concatenation loss

Your multi-track recorder probably has a number of file options and yous might use a standard compact format such as MP3 for demos. Any format that compresses more than 50% is probably lossy. This means audio particular is lost when recordings are made and it can't be recovered. Even when a total-size 16-chip CD is re-fabricated from the compressed file it won't audio the aforementioned equally the original.

A problem arises when a lossy copy is compressed again. When a further copy is made using another compressed format (e.k. MP3 to MP3, or WMA to Ogg) the sound will exist noticeably degraded. This is called concatenation loss and it gets worse as farther compression of any kind is reapplied.

In theory a series of coding and decoding operations using the same codec would be transparent but this is rarely truthful in exercise.

So remember the history of any copies and don't double up any blazon of lossy compression unless you're prepared to lose quality. Copies fabricated over digital connections are usually OK because the data is ordinarily mirrored, non re-compressed.

Format convertors

There are numerous audio file convertors bachelor online and they work in various unlike ways. All are subject area to concatenation loss and can't make truthful digital copies of the original.

Uploading your downloads

All web hosts take some limit on bandwidth fifty-fifty if they say otherwise. I adopt a defined bandwidth agreement considering your site is more probable to stay attainable and yous'll know if you tin beget it when you get a peak. If you have a "no limit" business relationship your site may exist adversely affected by other sites on the same host (all hosts take a bandwidth ceiling).

Music download file sizes

Whatsoever format you lot choose for downloads at that place are several file size questions.

• User endurance—how long will visitors wait for a download?
• User sense of taste—what degree of quality does the user await?
• Site bandwidth—how much congestion will downloads hateful for your server?
• Site capacity—how much room will the files take upwardly on your server?

The chances of anyone downloading annihilation much over a megabyte, unless they know what it is, are slim. In do a fast analogue modem takes three – 5 minutes to download a megabyte. Basic broadband is about x times faster simply even so small-scale file sizes increase your adventure of getting heard.

The mutual MP3 chip rate is 160kbps, although some people use higher rates. Yous tin can brand smaller MP3s using mono (one-half the size apparently) and lower bit rates. For demos, I recall 64kbps mono is fine, and the file size for a three minute number (about a megabyte) is as big as you desire for an ad hoc download.

If y'all halve the size of your download files yous too halve the bandwidth your visitors might utilise (although they probably won't all log on at once new releases might cause peaks, and word of mouth tin crusade surges from time to time).

Bandwidth exhaustion tin mean:

• your web host turns off your site for a period;
• your web host charges extra;
• your web site slows down or stops.

MP3 spider web server infinite

On a site like mine MP3 files occupy well over 95% of the server space. It's worth knowing how many downloads yous can keep before you need to buy more space—the formula is quite elementary. It takes about a megabyte for every infinitesimal of expert quality MP3 stereo (if you lot use mono you can double the number of files or length of time).

Download formats compared
Type		Size	1 infinitesimal	Example
Uncompressed	stereo	100%	10 Megabytes	CD, WAV, AIFF
Compressed (lossless)	stereo	50%	5 Megabytes	FLAC, Apple tree Lossless
Compressed (lossy)	stereo	10%	1 Megabyte	Ogg (Vorbis), WMA, MP3, AAC
	mono	five%	0.5 Megabytes
		Lossy encoding at higher chip rates makes bigger files

Yous might find files on your host server take up more room than they practice on your PC. This is considering different size discs store files differently, and so don't make your calculations too tight.

Downloading or streaming?

I don't think this is a real outcome. It'south adequately easy to do either as long as your server supports streaming. Streaming isn't really an selection on a punch-up connexion, just almost players can be set-up to beginning playing downloads before they're consummate. The only application where streaming is necessary is radio-style programming; for individual tracks information technology doesn't make much difference.

Online releases

Packaging and paperwork

Think to fill out the creative person, title and comments (e.one thousand. copyright, web site, email) data for your MP3 tracks, and check that your jukebox or playlist software uses the (more or less) standard ID3v2 tags.

There is a identify for ISRC codes in the MPEG file specifications, and in the ID3v2.3/4 specification (TSRC) merely people normally use the ID3 comment (COMM) field instead. Retailers or aggregators will tell yous how they desire you to tag your tracks (often in the filename itself).

Other important aspects of releasing tracks and albums are covered on the CD release page. Most of this applies to download releases also.

Getting your tracks onto the Internet

There'due south more about using ftp and getting online in Spider web sites, Your web site and Search engines. You tin too use an aggregator to distribute your fabric online.

Download sites and aggregators

If you want to make downloads available through sites other than your own in that location are options in Digital distribution and Download sites.

Aggregators and download sites provide information packs telling you how to format and submit your tracks.

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