KLANGSTAUB MUSIK FAQs

What is klangstaub musik?
Klangstaub musik is a web label founded by Bernhard Günter and Gary Smith who play as a duo named Klangstaub in order to promote and dirstibute their musical work, both as solo artists and as Klangstaub. The label also releases their collaborations with other artists, and may eventually begin to release other artists' work.

Why only albums, not single pieces?
With Klangstaub's pieces being of a duration of up to 25 minutes, and because Bernhard and Gary spend quite a bit of time to decide on the order of pieces that constitute an album, it would make little sense to offer individual pieces for download. Some albums even consist of only one piece, like Bernhard's OTO DAKE and MELLOM PARADIS OG HELLEVIGA by Bernhard Günter, Gary Smith and Michael Vorfeld.
The albums come zipped to one file to make download easier, include a printable cover with cutting marks, and in many cases extra liner notes with detailed information about the music, both in PDF format. The covers are designed to be use in slim boxes ( aka maxi CD box ).

Why the different prices for albums?
Klangstaub musik offers albums in AAC, MP3 and OGG formats free of charge; the lossless FLAC format ( which can be expanded to WAVE written to CD or re-encoded to any other format - see below ), however is an extra at €4.50.

Why do I have to register and log in?
Our online store uses Zen Cart as its basis, and for the time being, Zen Cart does not offer an option to let customers shop as guests. We regret this, and will implement this option as soon as Zen Cart will make it possible.

Why only PayPal?
We use PayPal in order to be able to accept payment by means of all major credit cards ( and all other form of payment like bank transfer and money orders are too expensive and often rather tedious in international business ). PayPal is absolutely free for the customer as klangstaub musik pays all fees ( so that for the label, a €10.00 album sale is actually a €9.30 one ).

What about VAT / Taxes?
Klangstaub musik is run by Bernhard Günter and Gary Smith, who are independent freelance artists ( rather than businessmen ) and are therefore not obliged to pay VAT on revenue generated by selling their music or concerts in their respective countries. Klangstaub musik therefore neither charges, nor pays VAT.

What exactly are the different audio codecs / formats?
AAC4 is the format used by Apple for their iPod and iTunes Store. The abbreviation means Advanced Audio Coding ( not Apple Audio Codec as many believe ). We generally use it a rate 256kBit/sec, which provides an audio quality that is very hard to distinguish ( if at all ) from the that of a CD. More info: Wikipedia

FLAC means Free Lossless Audio Codec and is an open source codec. Unlike all other formats we offer, FLAC is indeed without loss and could be described as a ZIP format for audio. This means that FLAC files can be decoded to Wave format to burn regular CDs from, or to encode to any lossy audio codec you choose. It is often used by people wanting to archive their CD collection in a lossless format – the audiophile's format, if you will. More info: FLAK

MP3 is often called the most popular audio format, though calling it 'the most widely known and used format' would probably more correct... there is basically no portable audio player or computer that cannot play MP3, and there are now CD players that can MP3 CDs. It is therefore the online music store's 'must have' and we use it a 256 kBit/sec ( 30kBit/sec for some releases ) to provide an excellent listening quality. More info: Wikipedia

Ogg Vorbis is another open source codec that I personally prefer for my portable audio player because of its 'musicality' ( a very hard to describe quality, but very important to musicians ), and the fact that it produces relatively small file sizes. We use Ogg Vorbis at 192 kBit/sec because I read that the creators of this codec think that higher rates do not provide a better sound quality. More info: Vorbis and Wikipedia

Bernhard Günter for klangstaub musik