Pricing
Downloads are priced by duration; there is no fixed price for a track.
Album prices are pegged to a number of standards, and always represent a saving
over the cost of buying the same content in parts.
MP3 and CD-quality Lossless downloads are offered at the same price.
Discounts for larger purchases
As with CD purchases from this site, we offer generous discounts if you buy in bulk.
For downloads, you can buy Pre-pay Credit which can be used against future downloads.
Please see the 'Pre-pay Credit' entry in the main menu for further
details or to purchase Pre-pay Credit.
Formats
Most of our new albums offer complete tracks for downloading free of charge so you can
try out the various formats on offer:
1. MP3 — high-quality VBR, small files (Lossy)
Our MP3s use Variable Bit Rate (VBR) which creates files of equal audio quality to 320kBps
while allowing a file size some 25% smaller; this is achieved by only using the "bits" in
the MP3 that are actually required to create the highest quality MP3 possible.
MP3 VBR is cross-platform and will play correctly on all but the very oldest of
portable MP3 players.
2. FLAC — CD-quality, large files (Lossless)
FLAC files (Free Lossless Audio Codec) are Lossless and offer full CD-quality (16-bit 44.1 kHz); they are over double the size of MP3 VBR.
Please note that some media players (including iTunes and Windows Media Player) do not currently support this format,
particularly on the PC platform. (For information concerning converting FLAC files
to other formats, please see the section 'How to work with FLAC files' in
the Short guide to downloading music from Hyperion.)
3. ALAC — CD-quality, large files (Lossless)
ALAC files (Apple Lossless Audio Codec, suffix .m4a) are Lossless and offer full CD-quality (16-bit 44.1 kHz); the files are similar in size to FLAC (over
double the size of MP3 VBR). These Lossless files are supported by iTunes without the need for conversion.
Some albums also offer Studio Master FLAC & ALAC files. These are 24-bit and at whatever sampling frequency (44.1 kHz, 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz) was used by the recording engineer at the time of recording (hence 'Studio Master'). These files are anything up to five times the size of their 16-bit 44.1 kHz equivalents and are more expensive. You should check the documentation of your playback equipment for compatibility with higher bit-rates and frequencies; most of our newest albums offer sample tracks for you to download and test free of charge
iPads / iPhones
It is not possible to install the Hyperion Download Manager or to download purchases directly onto
your iPad or iPhone—this is an Apple restriction. Please download to your Mac or PC and then sync to your
mobile device via iTunes in the normal way.
Albums, Tracks and Works
In addition to Album downloads and the option to download individual Tracks,
we also offer Complete Musical Works which can be downloaded as a single unit.
Metadata
Hyperion downloads contain as much additional information ('metadata') as possible.
This includes cover artwork and, where available, commentaries, sung texts and translations.
Please note, however, that not all media players read all of this information;
it is all freely available on this website, as are complete PDF booklets.
(We regret that we are unable to provide printed booklets to accompany downloads.)
@HyperionRecords