I've been looking around for a service that will let you buy fully uncompressed audio and all I have found so far is the apple lossless format. Upon hearing that itunes has a native decoder that will allow apple lossless -> WAV I was about ready to go with it until I read this little blurb on their store homepage:

"The iTunes Music Store lets you quickly find, purchase and download the music you want for just 99¢ per song. Burn 7 copies of a playlist to CD, Listen to songs on unlimited iPods, and play songs on up to five Macs or Windows PCs"

I don't like the whole bit about being restricted about what you can do with the music. Does this mean that the files are proteced in some way? I'm just looking for pure simple WAV or lossless audio that's the same as if I had bought the cd and ripped it. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Firstly, please search. This has been discussed before.

Secondly, the iTMS is not lossless. They sell AAC with FairPlay DRM.

Finally, none of the major US online stores offer lossless tracks. There is Allofmp3, but you might not use that because you may fear its dubious legality and there are also fears that some "lossless" tracks have been transcoded from high bitrate MP3 (I am not aware if these fears have any merit). EDIT: Yes indeed, it looks like such fears were groundless: Online LOSSLESS Downloads / Store, Are there any good ones out there?

Also be sure to read that entire thread as it pretty much answers your questions.

You choose your version and your format (mp3, wav/pcm or dts):
http://www.airlock.be/shape/
Cheers

Allofmp3.com has many of their albums with the original CD audio which you can download in a variety of lossless formats. Not all of their albums are available lossless but many are....and you can't be their price.

Lossless audio from allofmp3.com does not always seem to be the best proposition.

I thought I'd try it out for the latest Sonic Youth album. That album is 622 MB x $0.02 / MB = $12.44.

The same album from Amazon.com was $11.99.

So it seems for albums longer than the standard 45-50 minutes or so you should still shop around a bit if you're a pennypincher like me.

Magnatune



You even get to choose how much you want to pay! $5 - $20 USD for a single CD $8 USD recommended

As well as bumping into some new CD prices, there is the used market. Our local coconuts has them often for $5-6.

The advantage returns to allofmp3 if you are of the belief that many albums have a couple of good songs and have the rest of the hour filled out with junk, or for the all too common case where an album is re-released with 1 new track.

Join BMG Music, get their 12 for the price of 1 deal. With their shipping charges you get 12 CDs for about $50. Then sell the disks on ebay and you might even make money!