Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
Mike, you're more on top of these things than I am: what standard would you recommend for lossless downloadable audio files from PG Music that would serve both Mac and Windows?


Good question but I think the correct answer is It doesn't matter.

BIAB for Mac and Win use different schemes that are incompatible with each other and there's no universal standard that's compatible with both (FLAC is not supported by the MacOS). Zip and RAR do not save space and must be decoded so neither is a solution for the End User. In any case, there will always be two versions to download.

PG Music already has a partial solution, the Band-in-a-Box Install Manager. They just need to finish it to include this task.

If you have Komplete, IK Media, UVI or half a dozen other VI libraries, you know that you can just fire up the Install/License/Download manager (or whatever it's called), click on Update or Install and it will know not only the correct libraries but also where you want them installed. To quote the late Ron Popeil: "Set it and forget it!". All you have to do is enter your license info—some installers query your account and take it from there. iZotope's is not a good example, BTW, but I'm hoping that, now they are aligned with Native Instruments, this will improve.

BIAB 2024 Audiophile Mac
24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP
Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5