**Offer FLAC format in addition to (or instead of) WAV**
FLAC files are the same quality as WAV, but are much smaller and can include tags and album art.
br41n
shared this idea
Hello everybody. Today we introduced AIFF as a new lossless format that you can select during purchase. We’re hoping that this will address some of the functionality you’ve been asking for (metadata and album art in a lossless file). This forum will stay open so people can continue to vote for FLAC support and we would love to hear about your experiences using our AIFF downloads. For more information on why we started with AIFF, see this post: http://news.beatport.com/blog/2011/09/09/introducing-aiff-format/.
119 comments
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neuron
commented
is this a joke!? the perennial flac carrot dangled in front of beatport users!?
I had to lol at the beatportal article on aiff which mentioned FLAC being "not very popular". give me a break. It was the second highest scoring issue on the beta testing feedback forum, and beatport didnt even deign to respond in the slightest to it's customers about the issue. You guys must make a metric $hitload of cash on wav fees, and that's your right as a business, but the continued disrespect shown to your customers over the flac and excessive "wav handling fee" issues is disgusting.ripping off both artists and your customers for your own profit - i sincerely hope you guys find some decency and lift your game...
so go on, be honest beatport, do you have ANY intention of ever introducing cheaper priced flac files? you know very well the support is there for it, or are you just yanking our chains?
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sy
commented
@ KMF Hey man take a scan down here:
http://getsatisfaction.com/songbird/topics/cannot_import_flac_files_with_embedded_cover_art
Its just little things like this that really annoy me about FLAC support via mac, but yes you are right that there are option (like I say xACT is pretty alright) but for standard players I would like someone to develop foobar for the mac platform (just my opinion for my personal tastes). -
sy
commented
@KMF I'm the same man but songbird isn't on par with Foobar - it wont even show imeded cover art it can only source it from the net (look on the songbird forums with regards to FLAC the developers didn't even know that you can imded art in FLAC. It's shows MP3 art fine). As far as mixing I use Trakor as well. Also, there is a great encoder/decoder and multi tagger for mac called xACT if you have not checked it out it pretty decent. So I dont disagree with you but my main point was that going from PC to Mac that was the main thing I noticed where there are still some areas that need ironing out for full FLAC support. AIFF I see as a pointless option. At one point (back in time as far as I am aware) you could just change a file from .wav to .aiff until they changed the container for the file (I'm no expert but I am sure I read that somewhere). I would personally like to see wav prices drop to a fair price and then the option to download wavs as flacs.
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KMF
commented
@sy
I'm a Mac user but for playing FLAC files there are many music players as songbird. Same story for mixing, for example i use traktor.
So, where is the problem to use mac os x?
And, if you want to listen your FLAC files on the go, there are many player as Philips GoGear and many Samsung players.AIFF isn't supported as FLAC.
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symplec
commented
FLAC is definitely preferable to AIFF. At the very least, the metadata in WAVs would make it easier to convert between WAV and FLAC.
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NeilMG
commented
FLAC is a nice option but as a Mac user which has been echoed below, support for it is severely lacking.
Even if it was available I wouldn't get it. Why? Easy, name me a piece of hardware which plays it? No Pioneer unit supports it which pretty much means you can't play it anywhere outside of your computer and select portable players. Not useful. Beatport is aimed at DJ's and we need to be able to use the music we buy at gigs. -
sy
commented
@ KMF Maybe AIFF's an easy option. I'm not sure why FLAC isn't offered but it does seem that FLAC is perhaps not understood too well. Being both a Mac and PC user it is clear that FLAC support on MAC is poorly represented. On Windows PC (takin into account that you are not running Windows on Bootcamp which is not lending itself to this kind of situation) you have plently of options and a FANTASTIC player in the form of Foobar (the only thing I miss for Mac). Hopefully someone in Beatport will see the light and the many benefits of FLAC soon. Even JUNO offer it at checkout for your WAVs. Come on guys!
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KMF
commented
Moderator, are you fucking stupid??
We ask for FLAC file support, again F-L-A-C, not AIFF!
AIFF is way more heavy than FLAC, and it's proprietary! -
br41n
commented
Well that didn't help non-Apple users very much. I still have to go through the exact same steps with AIFF that I did with WAV:
* Convert the file to a format (FLAC) that is compatible with all of the platforms I use (Android, Linux, occasionally Windows).
* Retag the file, since AIFF doesn't use a standard tagging method.
* Download the cover art
All of this would have been avoided for users of all platforms if FLAC were available from Beatport. Not to mention, FLAC files are 20 to 30% smaller than AIFF files of the same song (while remaining lossless, of course).
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sy
commented
ps. I don't wanna jump the gun but if this format you are working on is gonna be a 'beatport lossless' then I would say that if you cannot decompress to the original WAV then it will be limited and those kind of brand marketing campaigns with product endorsments from every DJ software brand going never really pan out very well. The 'shop in beatport via traktor' thing didn't go down too well as an example. Like I say, don't wanna jump the gun, but just in case...
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sy
commented
If it is gonna include the functionality people are looking for does that mean it can be decoded back to the orginal WAV like FLAC can cos if not then...part of the good thing with FLAC (apart from the metadata) is the above which makes downloading and storage convenient. I'm not sure other lossless formats that you may get stuck with is a good idea.
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Anonymous
commented
Please support FLAC, its open and good for tagging. I rip all my original cd's in Flac format.
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masterjo
commented
I hope that a vote towards this issue counts as a vote towards the new lossless format in general.
And possibly this issue should be merged with this:
http://beatport.uservoice.com/forums/125821-beatport/suggestions/2081757-support-rekordbox-make-meta-data-available-for-wa
Reason being that the answer from Beaport staff is the same - "wait for the new format". -
masterjo
commented
So.. what format is it going to be?
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_sebastian_
commented
+1
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Benoit
commented
Why not flac? It's the only one lossless format Traktor support instead of WAV? + No one ask for another format?!!
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Tych0
commented
Not sure you can consider this request started when you have said it will not be flac.
Why not flac? I agree, flac is the future, ignoring it seems like a mistake Marc. Hope you guys change your minds.
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fresh
commented
wav wav wav....so easy...no need to convert...
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Möhre
commented
FLAC is future!
There are nice server tools for managing and converting it. So it would be easy to you to integrate this stuff.
But please do NOT include the Cover-Art within the file! Just put it in the ZIP/TAR =) ... or let the user decide before download =D