Our Download Formats Explained in More Detail

Here at Luminate Records we like to offer choice. For each of our tracks we have five options readily available- MP3, 16 bit FLAC, 16 bit Apple Lossless (ALAC), 24 bit FLAC and 24 bit Apple Lossless (ALAC).

If however you find you purchase something in a format that subsequently does not play on your system, or you have a more specific bit/kHz/format request please get in contact and we will do our best to supply you with something to suit.

Here’s a quick explanation of what we offer:

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a lossless compressed audio format, so there is no loss of sound quality as a result of the data compression.

We offer two choices in the FLAC format:

  • Standard Definition- 16 bit / 44.1 kHz, which is the same specifications as a standard compact disc.
  • High Definition – 24 bit / 96 kHz. While a few other bit depths and kHz values are commonly used throughout the audio industry this seemed to us to be a very acceptable benchmark, and one offered by quite a few other online retailers.

FLAC is fairly widely supported now as an audio format on computers, audio units and handheld devices, but some do not support 24 bit so it is a good idea to check first.

ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) is very similar to FLAC in that it is a lossless compressed format, but it is optimised for Apple products- iTunes and iOS. If you use iTunes to organise your music then Apple Lossless is a good format for you. We offer the same choices for Apple Lossless as we do for FLAC:

  • Standard Definition- 16 bit / 44.1 kHz, which is the same specifications as a standard compact disc.
  • High Definition- 24 bit / 96 kHz. While a few other bit depths and kHz values are commonly used throughout the audio industry this seemed to us to be a very acceptable benchmark, and one offered by quite a few other online retailers.

Unless you’re using iTunes or Apple handheld devices ALAC may not be the best choice for you in terms of compatibility. FLAC would likely be your best choice.

MP3
MP3 is a compressed audio format where there is a loss in quality, though our files are all encoded at the highest available resolution of 320kbps to limit this loss. The advantage to this format is much smaller file sizes, and so a saving in storage space. This can be considerable- for example a 24 bit Apple Lossless file of 81.8 mb might only be 11.3 mb in MP3 format.

MP3 is almost universally accepted and can be played on pretty much any audio system or device.