What's in the .zip
All music albums are available to download as FLAC files. The FLAC files are a 16bit (CD quality), lossless file, derived from the original PCM master. They are approximately half the size, making them more convenient for D/L, but with no loss of quality!
After you purchase a D/L album, you will receive a link to a .zip file containing the FLAC file, a CUE file and a PDF file (This .zip can be uncompressed with native software in most OS's)
Playback of your FLAC
The FLAC file you will receive is a single file with a separate CUE file. The reason for this is that all of my albums are mostly gap-less—The music continues between the tracks. Playback of idividual tracks requires the media player to be able to read the cue information embedded in the FLAC file or from the cue sheet. Not all players do this in the same way!
There are many different ‘media players’ out there. Various OS's come with native media players—You may already have a player installed that will be perfect for what you need. You can, of course, search for more on this; however, I will offer a couple of recommendations you may wish to try:
‘Clementine’ is a free multi-platform music player/library that plays back FLAC files without difficulty. It's my first choice here because it can play a continuous file (whilst allowing the individual tracks to be seen and played, like a CD), from either the .cue file or the .flac file. It's also got some nice features: the fading out of the sound when you stop or change tracks, but this isn't a review.
‘Foobar2000’ is also a free player/library (Windows only) It can play the .cue file, but it doesn't find the cue information embedded in the .flac file. I also think it's not so frilly, but like I say, this isn't a review.
‘VLC Media Player’ is a free and open source, truly cross-platform multimedia player. It's extremely well specified, and the only reason I didn't put this first is because it doesn't read the embedded cue info in the .flac file. This is why there is a .cue file in the package you receive, allowing for much more flexibility with playback on various media players.
Conversion into other formats.
The FLAC file that you receive has been compressed from the original wave file, and as such, can easily be uncompressed back into the original format. It can be compressed further still into a smaller, lossy format or burned onto a CD if that playback medium is preferred (I still play CD's in my car, and I often like to listen to CD's on my home system, mp3's on my phone, etc...)
I think it's fair, in this day and age, to accept that listeners–appreciators of music–would want to have their sounds delivered to them in various different formats, and I'm reasonable when it comes to that, but I would ask you not to make copies for anyone else.
Artwork Booklet
The last file to mention in the zip is the pdf artwork booklet. This can be opened with Adobe Acrobat or similar pdf reader, and contains the original cover art and credits. This is for your personal use, and I would ask you again, not to share this in any way, shape or form.
