What happens to my audio after I upload it?

When you upload a track, two things happen behind the scenes. It is worth knowing exactly what we do, and just as importantly, what we never do, to your audio.

Your original file is never touched

We keep the exact file you uploaded, untouched. If you switch on downloads for a Playlist, the person you shared it with receives that original file, bit for bit, the very same one that left your studio. We do not re-encode it, compress it, or alter it in any way. Your master stays your master.

For streaming, we make a high quality copy

Streaming and downloading are two different jobs, so they use two different files. For playback inside the player, we create a high quality 320 kbps AAC file (an m4a) from your upload.

We did not choose that lightly. We talked it through with some of the best known producers and mastering engineers in the world, several of whom use Songbox every day, and they were unanimous: at 320 kbps, AAC is an exceptional streaming format. For listening back over the web, it is effectively indistinguishable from a lossless file.

Why not just stream the original file?

It is a fair question, and the answer is reliability. Uncompressed formats like WAV and AIFF are perfect for archiving and mastering, but they are a poor fit for streaming over the internet:

• Phones are built for compressed audio. Apple's streaming technology and Android's media playback are both designed around compressed formats like AAC. Uncompressed WAV is not something either platform treats as a reliable streaming format, so playing a raw WAV over the network on an iPhone or Android device can stall, skip, or simply refuse to start.
• Browsers have the same limitation. Support for streaming WAV varies from browser to browser, and it was never meant for smooth playback over a connection.
• Size matters on the move. An uncompressed file can be roughly ten times larger than the streaming copy. On a phone or a patchy connection, that is the difference between instant playback and a spinning loader.

By preparing a streaming copy, we make sure your music plays instantly and flawlessly on every device and in every browser, all without ever touching your original.

The highest streaming quality around

Our default streaming quality is higher than any platform we know of. For comparison, SoundCloud streams at 128 kbps. We stream at 320 kbps as standard, for everyone, more than double that.

And to say it one more time, because it matters: wherever you have allowed downloads, your listener gets the original file exactly as you uploaded it, untouched by us. Beautiful high quality streaming for easy listening, and your pristine master whenever you choose to hand it over.

Want people to be able to download from a Playlist? See Let recipients download from a Playlist.