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Poster:	greenone	Date:	April 26, 2009 10:06:46am
Forum:	etree	Subject:	Re: Why do some concerts have FLAC only?

There are three possible reasons why a show is available in FLAC format only.

1) The band does not wish to have derivatives made on any of the shows in their collection. In this case, no mp3s will be generated until the artist consents. This is true for a few dozen or so artists on the LMA: http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=nomp3%20AND%20collection%3Aetree

2) The taper or uploader does not wish to have derivatives made on their shows. Slightly more common than case #2. When faced with a choice between FLAC only or no show at all, we'll go with FLAC only. Again, no mp3s will be generated unless the taper/uploader changes his/her mind.

3) There is some sort of error with the show that is preventing mp3's from being generated. Usually an md5 or ffp error, or a missing txt file, or one of the files is corrupted in some way. Usually something the uploader has to fix; they've been sent an email detailing the problem but many emails get caught in spam filters or ignored, plus they can be kind of hard to understand at times.

Not sure if you're on a PC or a Mac, but on a Mac, Cog (cogx.org) and Play (sbooth.org/play) can both play FLAC files seamlessly. There's a FLAC plugin for Windows Media Player and probably more Windows options but I'm not well-versed on my PC...