Hello,

Just wondering if anyone knows of an online merchant that sells albums in FLAC format. I am aware that several artists are selling their live shows in FLAC format, however I am just interested in normal studio albums. As far as I can tell it doesn't exist yet, but does anyone have any info on the subject?

Thanks,

SikeMo

bleep.com comes to my mind. It's mostly electronic music. There are many others... Have a look at the FLAC links page.

Why don't you just buy the CD and rip it yourself? This is often even cheaper, and you have got something physical.

itrax.com doesn't currently sell flac, but the owner has stated they will start soon.

--Milt--

HDTracks has flac, aiff and mp3.

https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php

Magnatune is another one:

http://www.magnatune.com/

EDITED TO ELIMINATE CONFUSION: The latter is indie not the former BUT both don't have overly extensive catalogues.

raiden mentioned the links page, another thing you might be interested in is the rss feed, where I announce stuff like this as I find out about it:
http://flac.sourceforge.net/feeds/news-atom1.xml

I think what people are really looking for are not just indie sites, but music site that has large collection of popular music for downloading with different setup's. It's a shame nothing like this yet exist to my knowledge without DRM. Amazon does it with mp3. Why can't they do it with lossless also. We all know it would cost too much and that DRM thing is still a huge factor.

Dave Matthews Band does. So does Metallica, and various others.

http://www.musiczeit.com/

Yeah, I have looked at the FLAC page but can't really find anything that I like. I am just hoping that at some point there will be a site like Amazon or iTunes that will feature flac for $10 or less per album. CDs are just starting to take up too much space!

The Dave Matthews Band sells live downloads as FLACs, but their studio albums are only available as either DRM'ed wma or wma lossless.

Is it? I guess it depends on what you want to buy. The prices of the last albums I was interested were in the range of 19-23 Euros (Germany) -- already excluding the insanely expensive Backini album.

<rant>
CD distribution as it's still done is a joke in this day and age. CDs are sent overseas and customers have to pay portage for what could easily flow digitally through cables...
</rant>

Cheers,
SG

boomkat.com sells flac, they started out like bleep mostly doing electronic music but recently seem to have added a wider selection

As I also live in Germany I sort of know what you mean... but Amazon isn't a very good example of this. There are many unrealistic prices, this album is another example.

The price also depends on where you buy an album. At the local Plattenbörse I got the latest Autechre album for just 12€, whereas on bleep I would have paid 12.75€ for the FLAC version.

In the end it all comes down to cost. And I don't only mean the cost that is printed on a sticker on the CD, but also all the other investments you are willing to make. For people who buy music online it is a hassle to visit a music store or waiting for the CD in case they ordered it online, ripping it to their PCs, maintaining a music library, having to store the physical case, etc... And we all know that time is money. So for those people, it is "cheaper" to buy online music.

But many people (myself included) actually enjoy visiting a good music store, enjoy ripping and maintaining a music library with a perfectionistic attitude, enjoy holding a physical product in their hands and reading through the booklet... So for them it is "cheaper" to buy the CD, even if shipping might take a few days. For them, a FLAC or MP3 is worthless, because their money is embodied in the physical product.

Of course all this applies only when an album is available in both forms.

In any case, I think digital distribution of lossless audio files without DRM should be encoraged. Lossless audio is, after the CD, the closest thing to "free" music. By that I don't mean the freedom of cost, but the freedom of converting it to any format and of playing it anywhere. DRMed WMA files should be a thing of the past.

I've just bought a FLAC release from boomkat (this one actually) but when i listened to it, i've noticed that each track has a short click/glitch at its end.
The files are not corrupted, but i'm not sure, that these "clicks" are parts of the compilation :S

What do you think about this? Shall i trust boomkat?

http://addictech.com is a nifty meta-label that sells digital music in many formats, including FLAC. Many great west coast breaks/electronic artists sell through there, including the entire Glitch Mob, Bassnectar, and Tipper, as well as many other artists of somewhat less notability.

http://www.pristineclassical.com/

The Nettwerk Records store sells a lot of good stuff in FLAC.

http://www.werkshop.com

Nobody?