Hard Canadian Wrote:I was looking into buying one of the volumes from the series but I am a bit hesitant as I am completely computer illiterate, especially since I recently purchased a Mac. If I purchase this will it download directly to my iTunes and what is the difference between an MP3 and FLAC version? And finally, we aren't able to order a hard copy with artwork and all directly from Maple Music correct?
How many people from here have a show or two from the series?
When you purchase one of the downloads, you pick a location on your computer to save the files to to that location. You would then need to import the songs from the location you saved them into iTunes.
iTunes does not play Flac (last time I checked), so your choices are either to buy the mp3 version (which iTunes will automatically play after importing), or buy the Flacs, convert them to a format that will play in iTunes (such as Apple Lossless), then import the Apple Lossless files into iTunes.
The Mac program XLD will do this conversion for you:
XLD
mp3s are a much higher compression of the original music file. The compression reduces the original file size by about 90%, but in doing so, you lose much of the information and can never re-create the original files (hence it is called a "lossy" format). It is widely considered to be lesser quality than a "lossless" compression (and yes there are many debates online about this point.)
Flac compression takes the original uncompressed file, and lightly compresses it to about 60-70% of the original music file. The result is a much bigger file size than mp3, but you will always be able to re-create the original file, and thus is called "Lossless". Flac is commonly used in archiving audio sound files because you do not lose any quality and can always recreate the original.
I would avoid buying the Flac version just to compress the files to a lossy file type such as mp3 so you can play them in iTunes. If that's the case, save a few $ and buy the mp3 in the first place.
I hope this helps explain the difference. A google search for "mp3 vs. flac" or just "flac" should provide much more info.
