Formats

Skye Records offers you a number of file options when you purchase one of our downloads.

When you purchase a cd, we’ll only offer you mp3 so you can listen to the music straight away while you wait for the CD. The CD will allow you to make whatever format you like when you receive it.

Aiff
This is the uncompressed version of the file and is exactly the same as the quality on your cd. These files will typically be quite large in size and will take some time to download (and have .aif at the end). If you are on a windows PC you might want to grab a converter to change these files to wav files. The data is the same, just the file type has changed. There are many of these converters for PC, and there are quite a few that do the job for free.

If you’re using iTunes on a pc you should be able to import and listen to aif files directly. If you’re on a mac these files are native to that OS and will play in any program, they also have the added benefit of having the cover art embedded in them, which is why it is the default file type that we offer for our High Resolution downloads.

Mp3
This is the universal compressed audio format and will play on virtually any system without any modification. The audio quality is not perhaps as good as AAC and aif beats it hands down, however the file sizes are similar to AAC and will play on anything. We supply these files at 320kbps which is similar quality to Amazon and other sites.

AAC
This is the default iTunes file type (.m4a), it is a compresssed file, but it does a better job of it than mp3, which is why Apple have chosen to have it as their default file type that you get when you download it from the iTunes site. We currently don't offer these files as an option but they can be made easily either from the cd or the Aif versions.

If you’re unsure what to download, you could just download the Aiff option and convert them to the file type you need yourself, that way you’ll always have the maximum quality if you need it.

Adding your files to iTunes
Once you’ve downloaded your file it will be in normally be in the .zip format if you chose to download it all in one file (recommended). On the mac you just double click this file and it will decompress creating a folder with your files in it. The Mac’s browser also has an option to ‘open safe files after downloading’ if this is checked the zip file will automatically decompress in the background. In windows you may have to open it in Winzip or similar to decompress the file.

To add these file to iTunes just go to the FILE menu and choose ‘add to library’ then navigate to the folder that was previously created and select ‘choose’ (or similar), your files are added to iTunes. Alternatively you could just drag the folder onto the iTunes window and it should install the files in your library automatically. One thing to watch out for is if you have ‘copy files to library’ checked in the iTunes preferences it will copy your files to its own library and you’ll then have 2 copies of the files on your hard drive! The safest option might be to allow this to happen then delete the original files.

Adding your files to Windows Media Player
Adding the files to Windows Media Player is a very similar process, just choose from the ‘Library’ menu and choose ‘add to library’ navigate to the folder with your files and away you go!

If you have any questions or problems with your files and need some assistance just use the contact form, send us your enquiry and we’ll try and help you the best we can.