Downloads

There are a large number of media players available online, and virtually all of them are free to download. Most computers come with one pre-installed, but you can of course install a different one and use it instead.

Different media players have different strengths and weaknesses - the following list is by no means exhaustive, but we hope it will be a useful overview of the options available for getting the best out of your downloads.

*But does not support smooth gapless transitions between FLAC tracks.

We include booklets with purchases where a booklet exists, the "Download Options" tab on the relevant album's product page will include the message "Includes PDF booklet", just above the button to add the whole album to your basket.

Unfortunately, some albums currently don't come with a PDF booklet. 

We include cover art with purchases of complete download albums. They are currently supplied as .jpg images, and can be downloaded from your user page alongside the audio files and (where relevant) the booklet.

If your downloaded album is missing the cover art, contact us and we will do our best to source it for you. info@prestomusic.com 

Mac OS sometimes has difficulty with ZIP archives. If it turns your ZIP into a "cpgz" file and refuses to extract it properly, then in essence it has mis-identified the file and is trying to compress it! 

When the .zip file is attempted to be unzipped, it extracts into a .cpgz file, which then can also be launched in Archive Utility, only to then turn back into a .zip file, which then turns into a .zip.cpgz file, and archive gets stuck in an infinite loop as it’s being decompressed into one variation of the other, over and over again

There are a number of possible solutions to this problem:

• Download and use a different (free) unzipping program like TheUnArchiver to open the ZIP file. 
• Extract the cpgz file, change its extension to .zip, and use the normal procedure to open it.
• If you downloaded the original file with Firefox, try downloading the zip file again with Chrome or Safari, and vice versa. Sometimes it’s just a matter of redownloading the file again before it unzips normally. 
• Unzip the Zip CPGZ from the Command Line. The command line unzip tool is often able to break archives out of the .zip to .cpgz cycle. You can do the following with the original .zip archive to open the CPGZ on a Mac:
  • Launch Terminal, found in the /Applications/Utilities folder
  • Find the .zip file in the Finder and have it easily accessible
  • At the command line type “unzip ” followed by a space, then drag and drop the .cpgz or .zip file into the terminal window to automatically enter the full path to that file, then hit return

• The archive should expand as usual, giving you the contents

Once your payment has successfully been processed, you will receive an email confirmation with a link directing you to your downloads page, alternatively, you can navigate directly to you download page, where your files will be available to download. 

Yes, duplication of downloads are possible, but these copies should only be for personal use only.

Some record labels discontinue the physical versions of older or less popular albums, leaving only the download version available. While this can seem difficult to comprehend, it's worth noting that without downloads, these albums would probably have been deleted entirely.

Conversely, some record labels *only* release their albums digitally - there is a growing number of small, independent digital-only labels, and their releases won't be available on disc.

If you prefer to have your music on physical discs rather than just as files on a drive, you can then burn a CD of the files once you've downloaded them.

Once you have purchased your music, the files are listed on your account page and can be downloaded at any time. Most files will remain listed indefinitely; others, depending on the supplier, will only be available for a number of months after purchasing - but either way, you'll have plenty of time to download a number of times.

If your downloaded file has audible glitches, or the tracks are labelled incorrectly - or the music is the wrong piece entirely - then contact us and we will request a replacement version from the supplier. **The more information you can include - order number, catalogue number barcode etc - the better**

Please be aware that these replacements can take a little while to arrive and be processed; you may wish to try a fresh download of your purchased track(s) from your Account page first, as sometimes the problems can originate in the download process itself.

1. On the page for the album/piece you're interested in, you will notice an option on the right hand side (similar to the image below)

2. Click on the format you would like to download - currently MP3 (320kbps) or FLAC. FLACs are available in CD-equivalent 1644.1 quality, and selected albums are also available in Studio Quality FLAC format (with higher bit depths and sampling rates, mostly 2496) what are these?

3. If you are simply looking to purchase the complete album, please click 'Add download to basket'. If you would prefer a singular track/excerpt, click on the shopping basket icon next to the piece or work as shown below - this will add the items to your basket/cart.

4. If you've finished adding items to your basket, click "Proceed to Checkout".

5. If you've downloaded from us before, log in with your email and password; if not, you'll need to enter an email address and password, followed by your address.

6. Click on "Continue to checkout"

7. Select payment method and enter card details

8. Then click on "Complete payment".

9. You'll be taken to a page confirming the order and showing a link to your account page; this will list the tracks you've purchased, and you can download them either individually or as a ZIP file. Where PDF booklets are also available for the album(s) you've purchased. You will also be sent an email detailing the location of your items.

10. Happy listening!

MP3

We offer our MP3s in the highest bitrate available, 320kbps. MP3s are extremely widely used, so pretty much all music players and programs can play them. The file size is relatively small, due to the compression of the file (so they are quicker to download and take up less memory, even while still offering near-CD quality sound). This also means they are cheaper. But, the sound is of a lower quality than FLAC audio. MP3s are inherently unable to move seamlessly from track to track; this means that if you have a continuous work split into more than one MP3 tracks, you will be able to hear the "join" between one track and the next, regardless of what device or program you are using to play them. 

FLAC

Our downloadable FLACs are at least equal in quality to CDs, at 16-bit 44.1kHz sampling resolution. We also offer Studio Quality FLACs; these are higher-quality files (mostly with a bit depth of 24 bits, i.e. with each sample containing 24 bits of information as opposed to 16, and a sampling rate of 96kHz), which are superior in quality to CDs and are the closest quality to the master files used in the studio. FLACs are also a "lossless" audio format, meaning the sound quality is higher than it is in "lossy" formats such as MP3. Despite being lossless, FLACs are nevertheless compressed - but in such a way that no audio data is lost. This means that you get some of the advantages of a compressed file - quicker transfer, smaller size - while losing none of the quality. Unlike MP3s, FLACs support perfectly seamless playback - Unfortunately, some audio playing programs nevertheless have difficulty moving seamlessly between FLAC tracks. Because they are not as compressed as MP3s, FLACs are somewhat larger, and therefore more expensive as well as being slower to download. Studio Quality FLACs in particular are substantially larger than MP3s. 

While very common, FLACs are not as ubiquitous as MP3s, and some media players and devices are unable to play them - in some cases you might need to download and install an extension, but some players simply do not play FLACs at all, notably Apple's iTunes and QuickTime Player. Microsoft Windows Explorer does not display the tagged metadata (artists, conductors, etc) when you are browsing through FLAC files. The metadata is still there, and will "reappear" when you play the tracks or albums in a media player - it just isn't visible when you are looking through your collection. Some other media players are similarly selective about which metadata they will display. 

Downloading direct to a tablet or smartphone isn't quite as straightforward as downloading to a laptop or desktop; you'll need to install a "file management" app to handle the initial downloading process, and from this you can then assign downloaded files to be opened with a specific program (in the case of music files on the iPadiPhone, generally iTunes). 

It's also best to download the individual audio files instead of a ZIP as these are not handled well by tablets. Presto doesn't officially endorse any one app, but this page has a selection of options.

Alternatively, if you do have a laptop/desktop computer, we would always recommend downloading and then syncing to your tablets library in order to play your music.

Download your music from Presto Music to your desired folder and then drag and drop the folder or files directly to the iTunes window. 

Please note, however, that this will only work with files in MP3 format; iTunes doesn't support FLAC, so if you try to add FLAC files to your library it will simply ignore them.

If you have already downloaded a FLAC file with the intent to play this via iTunes - Please visit our help section Working with FLAC files

Your files will be available until the item is no longer available for sale. They will be available from your download page. simply sign in and find the downloaded product. 

We would always recommend making regular backups of your data to ensure that it can be fully recovered in it's entirety. This can be done by either purchasing an external hard drive or signing up to a cloud storage service.

A growing number of devices support HD playback, and more are set to join them as HD audio becomes more widespread. The examples given below are not endorsements of a particular company's product - it's a matter of personal taste, budget and various other factors, and it depends on where and how you're intending to listen to your HD files!

If you have the files stored on your hard drive and want to listen to them via your computer, you'll need to connect your computer to a USB DAC (Digital Audio Converter) that supports HD formats, then plug that into your Hi-Fi or headphones. Quite a variety of products exist that will do this - the Arcam irDAC, the Naim DAC-V1 and the T+A DAC 8 are just three examples. Some headphone sets also have the necessary DAC built in, meaning you can bypass this step. Note that some Sonos systems do not support HD audio, but note that newer version will support this.

You will also need audio playing software that is capable of playing the files. Most software can do this but there are some notable exceptions, such as Apple's iTunes (which doesn't support FLAC files and uses it's own version of Lossless files called ALAC). Compatible programs include VLC, Winamp, Media Monkey and Songbird.

If you are an iTunes user then you can play HD files, but you'll need to convert the FLACs into Apple's equivalent format, ALAC, first. Once you've done this (the conversion is lossless), you should end up with HD ALAC files that iTunes can play with no difficulty - they'll also be playable by iPods. - Please see Working with FLAC files for more details.

If you want to listen to your music on an external storage device, you'll need some specialised equipment - a network music player and some good speakers to go with it. Various manufacturers exist - Cambridge Audio, Marantz, Linn and Sony all offer a range of network music players and accompanying speakers. You can either plug the speakers in or, increasingly, stream the music wirelessly from the storage device to speakers elsewhere. 

If you want to play your music on your mobile device or personal media player, then this depends what model you have. Most modern smartphones support HD audio, but older models may not. There also exist specialist HD personal media players - various models are available from Sony and Astell & Kern.

Finally, it's equally important that your listening environment and the rest of your equipment are suitable - there's no point in listening to HD audio files on a noisy train, for example, no matter how good your device is! To get the most from HD audio, make sure your loudspeakers or headphones are of a similar standard to your DAC hardware - otherwise you won't hear the benefit of the superior recording techniques.

We try to tag our download files in the most intuitive and consistent way possible. However, many people have their own preferred method of tagging their music so as to navigate their collection as easily as possible, and our method may not be the same as yours! Fortunately, if you'd like to re-tag your downloaded files to bring the metadata in line with your preferred labelling method, there are many programs available that will do this. MP3tag is one - despite the name, it can re-tag both MP3s and FLACs, though it is not free software. Alternatively, many free-to-download music playing programs (for instance Winamp and FooBar2000) can edit tags as well.

Desktop (PC) computers do have a simple option to edit metadata tags - By double clicking on the folder to show all audio files then (shift+right mouse click) - this will then show a pop up menu - click on properties, then details. This will then allow for a value to be added for the specific title.

This is mostly dependent on your own connection speed and bandwidth. The faster your connection and the higher your bandwidth, the faster your download will complete. As a general rule (and please note that these are only very rough estimates!) for an average-sized single track of 3-4 minutes, DSL broadband users should expect a download time of about 60 seconds. The time will be proportional to the size of the file. 

Tip: Please note that the download versions of very large box-sets - containing dozens of CDs' worth of music - can take an extremely long time to download, even on a fairly fast connection. If you suspect your connection may not be reliable enough to let you download the whole ZIP archive in one go, you may prefer to download the tracks on an individual basis by visiting your downloads page and clicking on View Works and Tracks

ZIP files bundle several files together into one large file, often called a ZIP "archive". This means that downloading an album containing dozens of tracks, which would otherwise be a very boring process, can be done in one click. ZIP files themselves are not playable audio files - once you've downloaded them you'll need to unzip them to restore them to their original format. Almost all computers come with built-in unzipping software - right-clicking on the ZIP file should bring up a menu including an option to "extract" or "unzip".

MAC

The Mac operating system has a built-in utility to extract ZIP archives. Just double-click the ZIP archive and it should automatically extract to a new folder. If you have issues with the built in extract software, we would recommend a program like TheUnArchiver to open the ZIP file. 

PC

Windows has its own unzipping utility. When the ZIP archive has downloaded (into your Downloads folder, though the exact location will vary depending on which version of Windows you are running), simply right-click on it and select "Open with", then "Windows Explorer". Alternatively, if you prefer, there are numerous programs available that will do this - WinZip (not free after 30 days) and PeaZip are just two.

Many extraction utilities have difficulty with file paths longer than 260 characters (including all the folders, eg C:UsersName etc... We ensure that our file paths, including both the filename itself and its folders don't exceed 199 characters, so if you're having difficulty with a file path's length then it may be that you're trying to unzip it in a location that exceeds the remaining 60 characters (for example, if your username on your computer is exceptionally long). The easiest solution is simply to move the downloaded folder elsewhere, perhaps on your desktop for ease in locating it and unzipping it there, before then moving it into your normal music library.