Audio files on the web come in different sizes and qualities. This site will direct you to 3 different audio file types - MP3 files through the media player for you to hear some of the songs, AAC files on iTunes, and Apple Lossless for download. I'll explain these below.

MP3 - MP3 is the most popular audio format on the web. The MP3 format has been around about as long as the internet as we know it has been in existence. MP3s are popular because they are compressed (become converted into a small size) and therefore take up minimal space and are easier to transfer and download. This type of file is called lossy. It is lossy in that it has lost audio quality as a smaller version of the original cd track and therefore, doesn't sound nearly as good as the original recording. For example, a 128kb MP3 file is in fact only 10% of its cd counterpart. So, an MP3 has typically lost 90% of it's audio quality. AAC files, even though they do sound better than MP3s are also lossy. Other examples of lossy files are Real Audio, and Windows Media.

Apple Lossless - AL is another type of compression. However, this file type doesn't suffer any quality loss. In this case, it is the exact copy and full quality of the cd track when it is played back. Lossless files aren't nearly as popular because even though they take up less space than the cd track, they aren't anywhere near as small as an MP3 and therefore take more time to download. Apple Lossless is used on this site because it only requires iTunes© or Quicktime© to play and is therefore accessible to anyone. Also, you are able to convert it into any lossy file you'd like.

In short, if a song is 5 minutes long, this translates into about 50 Megabytes in size.

The Apple Lossless version of this file will be about 25-30 Megabytes.

The MP3 version of this file at 128kbps will be about 5 Megabytes. Yikes.