FAQ & Help

Listening Earth Customer FAQ

Your Account:
• Setting up a new account
• Forgotten password
• Changing email address of your account
• Changing other details of your account

Pricing

Purchasing from us:
• CDs in stock
• Payment options
• Checkout
• Order Confirmation

Shipping:
• Delivery times
• Postal charges
• Parcel not arrived?

Download your albums:
• New to downloading?
• Order completed - what next?
• Accessing your download links
• Problems downloading?
• Failed download?
• Can't find your download?
• Corrupt file?
• Still no success?

What to do with your downloaded files:
• Decompressing or expanding .zip files
• Playing mp3 files
• FLAC format
• Importing flac to iTunes, or burning to CD

Gift Vouchers & Promo Codes

Security & Privacy Policy

Exchange & Refund Policy

Contacting us

 

 

 

Your Account:

Setting up a new account:

Whether you have had an account on our old webshop, or are a new visitor, you will have to set up a new account to purchase. (We've been unable to import the customer database from our previous webshop due to security and encryption incompatibilities, however we can still access all our old account and order details.)

Creating an account with us will allow you to make and recall your own wishlists, and facilitate checkout when you come to purchase. You can then view your purchase and download history.

Once you've created your account, you can simply login whenever you return, and modify your personal details when necessary.

I've forgotten my password:

Welcome to the human race. Click on the 'My Account' tab at the top right hand corner of the website. At login, you will see a link to retrieve your password. The email address you enter must of course be the one used to create your account. An email with your password will automatically be sent to this address.

Changing the email address for your account:

Your account is defined by your email address. To change it, log in to your account using your existing email address and password. Once logged in, you can edit and update your email address.

Changes to your Account:

Once logged in, you can also edit any of your other personal details. Don't forget to click the 'update details' button to save.

Any changes will obviously only affect future orders. If you need to make a correction for an order you've just placed, contact us directly.

 

 

Pricing:

All prices listed on this site are in Australian dollars (AUD). Today's conversion rates.

GST (goods and services tax; 10%) is applicable to orders made by customers purchasing from within Australia. If applicable, the GST figure will be added to your order at checkout, dependant upon your billing address.

Pricing Policy:

We aim for fair pricing of our work, both for ourselves and you.

Which is not as easy as it may seem in an international market. Music here in Australia is sold at a premium; iTunes charges around $15-$18 for a single album, and one can easily pay $30+ for an import CD - which seems to us unecessarily high for customers. Europe is similar. By contrast, in the US, download albums are often around $7-9, with CDs lower than $15 - and at pricing like that, artists don't get much at all.

Compound this with the expectation that nature sounds are just 'new-age', relaxation product, often of poor, 'pump it out' quality, to be sold at a budget price.

We want to make the best recordings possible, investing in state-of-the-art technology, and taking the time to access to remote locations. Often our field work involves considerable expense; flights, insurances, vehicle hire, parks entry fees and so on.

Fair pricing is thus important in striking a balance between allowing us to carry on our work, and making our albums affordable for everyone to enjoy.

What we've chosen is to price our albums in the middle ground internationally, and then offer discounted prices if you purchase a number of albums from us. View our specials here.

 

 

 

Purchasing from us:

CDs in stock:

We keep all our CD titles in print and in stock. In the unusual event that stock of a particular title runs low, there may be a delay of around a week until we get new supply.

Payment options:

For fast, easy and secure online payments, we now exclusively use Paypal:

Use a range of credit cards, even if you don't have a Paypal account. With a Paypal account, you also can draw from account funds or a linked bank account. More info from paypal.com

If you contact us directly, we can also arrange payment by:
- Credit Cards; Visa or Mastercard only (sorry, we do not accept American Express due to high charges)
- Cheque, Australia Post Money Order, or Direct Deposit (for Australian customers ONLY).

Checkout:

Please double check your email address (and delivery address if appicable) is correct at checkout. It is easy to mis-type an email address, and it may cause lost communications and delays.

When you checkout, you will select either Paypal or Paymate, and be directed to their secure site to finalise payment. Either will process credit card transactions without the need of setting up an account or logging in. You will only need to login with Paypal if you wish to use your pre-existing Paypal account.

Order Completion and Confirmation:

Once you have completed payment and verification is received (usually within a few seconds), you will be redirected back to the Listening Earth website. You will see an order verification page, with links to access any downloadable products. This page can be accessed at any time by logging in to your Listening Earth account, and viewing your order history.

Additionally, you will automatically be sent an email confirming your order, with any applicable download links.

 

 

Shipping:

If you have ordered a CD, an automated confirmation email will be sent once your order has been packaged up and dispatched.

Usually we dispatch within a working day of receiving an order.

Please be aware that there are times when we are away in remote areas conducting field work. At these time there may be delays of up to a week in getting orders out, depending upon what arrangements we've made for someone to look after dispatches while we're away. In this situation, we will post an advisory notice on our website, and ask your patience. Please understanding that we are, after all, a small family business!

Note - Paypal customers: We will be shipping to the address you give us with your order, not one you may have listed with your Paypal account.

Delivery times:

All orders are dispatched via Australia Post. Domestically, packages are sent via Australia Post's parcel delivery service, and overseas by regular Airmail.

From our experience, these are the approximate delivery times for:

Australia:
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart metropolitan areas: 2-3 business days
NSW, QLD, VIC, SA and TAS Country: 3-4 business days
NT and WA: 8 to 15 business days.

Overseas:
Europe, north America: 10-14 business days
Other destinations seem more dependant upon the efficiency of local mail delivery services. We have found for instance that getting a package to India for instance, often takes around 3 weeks.

Please note that postal services cannot be accurately anticipated, and that you need to allow for these times when ordering for a gift or by a specific date.

Postal charges:

CD orders: We calculate our postage based upon the actual charges, plus packaging. For overseas, these charges vary by country and get pretty complicated. We average and often undercharge for overseas shipments.

Australia:
$5.50 for the first CD, and $1.10 per additional disc in the same order (all inclusive of GST). (eg: 3 CDs postage would be $7.70)

Overseas:
$11.00 for the first CD, plus $3.00 per additional disc (ex tax, unless purchased from within Australia). (eg: 3CDs=$17.00)

Postal Surcharge for US customers:

Please note that as of 22nd November 2010, all parcels over 500g (eg; CD order of 5 discs or more) sent to the US will incur a AU$9.00 postage surcharge.

This has been introduced by Australia Post in response to heightened border protection and increased aviation security measures introduced by the United States. We've also been advised there may be delays of 48 hrs for parcels sent to the US. As you can understand, these matters are completely outside our control.

This surcharge is difficut to calculate into our automatic postage calculations, and hence it will not appear in the postage calculation at checkout. We will be contacting affected customers personally once an order has been placed.

Concerned about how long your package is taking to arrive?

Have you received a dispatch confrimation emails from us? If not, go to our site, login to your account, and view your order history to see whether your order is marked as dispatched.

While you're there, check that your order is as you expect; for instance that you hadn't inadvertently ordered the download version of an album, and that your delivery address and contact details are correct.

If there is something obviously incorrect in all this, you'll obviously want to contact us.

If your order is correct and marked as 'dispatched' with a date allowing sufficient delivery time, then as a first step, please contact your local post office. Parcels are often held at the post office if delivery has been attempted but not possible for some reason. Postal delivery staff are not obligated to leave a card in your mailbox if you are not there, however most will do so. Australia Post is obligated to leave a card for a unit/apartment and PO boxes, but we are told frequently that customers do not receive them.

If your post office can't find your package, then it is common sense to wait and see if it has simply been delayed. We have found that from time to time your package is actually at the Post Office, and when questioned (or pleaded) to look a bit harder, the package is found by staff. So if sufficient delivery time has elapsed, please ask as nicely as possible for them to have a really good look!

In our experience, it is rare for a parcel to go completely missing, even to exotic destinations. However if it does, we'll happily discuss resending a replacement package or a store credit. However, if your package is returned to us with incorrect delivery information, then we will charge an additional postage fee to replace it.

 

 

Downloads:

New to downloading?

If you have never downloaded a digital audio album previously, you might like to check the following to make sure your internet connection is up to the job:

• Check that your internet access is suitable for downloading a file of around 100Mb (FLAC albums up to 400Mb). Dialup plans are generally unsuitable because the download will take a long time, possibly several hours. So ADSL/broadband is a recommended minimum. If in doubt, contact your Internet Service Provider.

• Also check that your internet plan doesn't have a data download quota, beyond which your speed is throttled. If you've overshot your monthly allowance, a large download will likely be compromised by a slow transfer speed.

• If your internet service drops out during a download, this will most likely abort the download. So check that your internet connection is stable for the duration of the download. Also, see the slow internet connections suggestions below.

Order completed, what next?

After payment is successful, you will be automatically redirected to an order status/download page. On this you will see the links to download any digital albums you've purchased. You will also see the dispatch status for an products requiring shipping.

Please check through all the details on this page (shipping address, contact details, products ordered). If there are any errors, contact us.

Your order status/download page can be accessed at any time by logging in to your Listening Earth account, and viewing your order history.

You will also automatically be sent an order confirmation email, and this will have a link to log in to your account and access your order history.

Accessing your download links:

Our shop is configured to allow you an unlimited number of attempts to download each product.

On your order status/download page, click ONCE on the album link to activate download. On some operating systems (some older versions of Windows?), a simple click does not activate the download process. If this happens, try a 'right click' and 'save to disk' - this has reportedly worked for some users.

Your computer may automatically save the file to your default download location, or you may get a dialogue box asking what you want to do with the file, in which case save it somewhere you can find it (desktop for example).

Only download ONE file at a time - attempting to download multiple files simultaneously will put extra bandwidth demands that may lead to time-outs or other data delivery errors.

The file you'll be downloading will be a .zip format file, which is a single file archiving all the tracks for the album. This .zip file will need to be decompressed to create a folder with all the audio files plus some artwork. Your computer may do this automatically, but if you need to manually decompress it, see 'What to do with your downloaded files' below.

Problems downloading?

The internet can be erratic at times, and even though our servers are working perfectly and other customers downloading fine, you may nevertheless encounter a difficulty. If you do, don't panic, there's probably a simple solution. All you need is a little patience, persistence and experimentation (or the assistance of a net-savvy friend :-).

Hopefully these suggestions will help.

Failed Download?

Here are a few suggestions to minimise the possibility of failed downloads. Contact us if you need your links extended.

• If your download seems excessively slow, is 'hanging' or just plain fails, just cancel the download and try again. It does happen, which is why our system allows you an unlimited number of download attempts.

• Download problems can be browser-specific. Try accessing your download page using an alternate browser if you have access to one. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Safari (mac) seem to be particularly stable and compatible browsers.

• Firewalls can present unpredictable problems. For instance, if you are downloading at work, you may want to try your home computer, or visa versa.

• Don't use a download manager, as we've found they can cause errors. Download managers are third-party software designed to faciltiate your downloads and offer more options and control. Examples are Orbit, iGetter or Internet Download Manager. However they can be erratic in how they handle downloads. Sometimes a download manager may even run in the background by default without you being aware of it. If you know it is, then try disabling it before clicking on the download link.

You think you've downloaded your file, but can't find it on your computer:

• Files will likely download into your default download folder. Open the preferences of your internet browser to find where that is set to on your computer.

• Use whatever search facility you have on your computer to find the file. Each of our albums has a unique filename, usually the catalogue number followed by the album title (sometimes abreviated). For example: the 'Happy Budgies' album filename is '35HappyBudgies.zip', and 'A Morning in the Australian Bush' is '04MornBush.zip'. To determine the exact filename of your elusive file, go to our site, find the album and pick one of the front cover graphics. If you right click to view or save the graphic, your browser will show the filename as, say, 35HappyBudgies210.jpg. Ignore the '210.jpg' bit, as it is the graphic suffix. Now you'll have the filename to search your computer for.

If you have downloaded the file, but it appears to be corrupt:

All files on our server have usually been downloaded successfully by other customers, so are unlikely to be corrupt at source. However it can occasioanlly happen with new albums, so contact us to check if this may be the case. It is far more likely though, that any data corruption will occur in the downloading, in which case:

• Simply rename the original (corrupted) file (or just delete it), and try downloading again.

• If you have a slow internet connection, strategise your download for a time of day when there is less internet traffic (Late night/early morning US time is often a good option). This will lessen the chance of file corruption due to dropouts or slow data delivery.

• Try the alternate browser/computer suggestion already mentioned.

Still no success?

• We cannot assist with advice regarding your computer system or internet access. All we can do is make sure our servers are online and performing efficiently. Many internet problems are temporary, and hopefully the suggestions we've made here will assist you in resolving any that you encounter.

• As a last option, if you can't find a solution, or you own a wind-up, steam-driven, or peddle-powered computer, we will happily refund your money via the method you paid.

 

 

What to do with your downloaded files:

Each of our albums may contain several tracks, each a seperate audio file. This collection of files, together with some graphics and notes, are bundled together into a single 'zip' file, suitable for downloading.

Your zip file will require 'unzipping', expanding or 'unarchiving'. This process may happen automatically on your computer, or with a double click on the .zip icon. However, it is possible you may not have suitable software, and may have to find a decompression utility (software or program) from the net.

There are different ones of mac OSX or Windows:

Windows:

(Listening Earth runs on Macs, so this advice has been offered by a friend who uses Windows XP Professional. If anyone can add to or improve on these suggestions, please email us):
1) Save the .zip file to your selected folder, eg; My Music in My Documents.
2) Double left click on the saved file, this opens up WinZip in my case (not sure what other unzipping options there are, but you could try versiontracker.com for other utilites, mac or windows), click on the Extract icon, select where the new folder will be put, click on Extract button to start the extraction process.
3) Go into the new folder and double click on one of the files to play it, in my case using Windows Media Player, and check the extraction has worked. The whole album can be imported into iTunes for playing or uploading to iPod.

Mac (OSX):

You could begin by right clicking on the zip file and see what applications are available on your computer to open it. If you don't have anything suitable, there are several applications we know of; 'Stuffit Expander' is a well-known extraction utility, but we actually use 'BetterZip'. There may have been a program called 'zipit' for OS9. A range of compression utilities, both current and retro, can be downloaded from download.com.

Usually one can simply drag and drop the album file onto your decompression program icon, or else choose 'open' from within the program, or double click on the zip file icon. It may expand automatically, or you may have to follow the instructions and save as a folder.

For some further insight into .zip files, and software to expand them, try here.

Once you have the extracted folder of mp3 files, simply drag and drop, or import them into iTunes or your music playing program.

Audio files won't play?

Note that not all media players can play mp3 files, Windows Media Player for instance cannot. Use iTunes or an mp3 audio player.

FLAC format

Information about FLAC format - what it is, how to decode or play flac files - is included in a text file included with your download.

More specific information about FLAC format can be found here: http://flac.sourceforge.net/

You will probably need to download a small utility program to decode your flac files into something you can play or burn to a CD disc. These should be free, and a list of utilities appropriate to different operating systems can be found here (scroll to middle of page): http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

Importing your FLAC files to iTunes and/or burning them to CD

Here's a more detailed description of how to get this happening:

Assuming you've downloaded your .zip file, and expanded (decompressed) it as described above, you will now have a folder on your HD for each album, comprising .flac files (plus graphics etc).

Flac is a compression format specifically for audio, similar to jpeg for photos. The reason we use it on our site, is that it offers full CD-quality audio, but with a smaller filesizes (about 60% of full CD files). However, flac files cannot usually be played, such as in iTunes, nor burned to disc. You will have to convert them to a regular audio format first. (Flac format can be played natively by some programs, see links above).

This page lists many of the free utilites available online that will do the re-coding to these regular audio formats: http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html

If you want to listen in iTunes, on an iPod or a domestic audio streamer, utilising the high-resolution audio the flac format offers, you could opt for AAC, Apple Lossless, or high-resolution (320kbps bit rate) mp3, or the full filesize formats of .wav or .aiff. When you have converted to your chosen file format, just drag 'n' drop, or import the files into iTunes.

For burning to CDR, we recommend converting your flacs to .wav files (or equally .aiff on macs). These can be imported into iTunes and a disc burned from there, or alternatively, you can use your usual CD burning program (Nero, Toast...).

Remember to set zero second gaps between tracks, as all our albums play continuous audio without track gaps. Also, ensure that your software is set to burn as 'disc at once', which means it keeps the laser on continously throughout the burn, as opposed to 'track at once' where it turns it on and off, causing an audible click at each track point.

Included with your download is a simple cover graphic for you to print out if you'd like to.

 

 

Gift Vouchers

Listening Earth Gift Vouchers are redeemable via the Listening Earth website, and are valid for 12 months from the date of purchase.

As a customer, you select the amount of the voucher, and add a personal message. The voucher is added to your shopping cart, along with any other puchases (including additional vouchers) purchased at the same time. Once payment is approved, our shop will automatically send an email to the recipient, advising of the gift and how to redeem it.

Redeeming Gift Vouchers

To use your gift voucher, follow these steps:

1. If you don't already have one, you will need to set up a customer account (here, or link at top right). This is easy, and requires no sensitive information. It also enables special features on our shop, such as a custom wishlist and a personalised order history (so you can re-download your album(s) at any time in the future).

2. Browse: have a look and listen around our shop. Decide what you'd like. Add your chosen items to cart.

3. View Shopping Cart and review your choices. Proceed to step 2 of the cart (Your details), and add your Gift Voucher code (supplied in the email you received from us, advising you of your gift) in the box provided.
• If this results in a $0.00 total, click 'Proceed to next step'. The payment step will be bypassed, and you will be redirected to your download page.
• If there is an additional amount (maybe you've added extra albums), just proceed through payment as normal.

Products 'paid for' using Gift Vouchers will appear as normal in your account>order history, and can be accessed for download again at any time in the future.

Vouchers do not have to be used in one transaction. If you have received more than one voucher, and wish to use them against the same order, please contact us with the voucher codes so we can arrange for the vouchers to be combined.

 

Redeeming Promo Codes

Begin by browsing our site, selecting the products you would like, and adding them to your shopping cart. On the 'My Details' page of checkout, simply type in the relevant code in the box labelled 'Promo Code', and click "apply" to allocate the discount to the order.

 

 

Security

Listening Earth encrypts all personal information submitted to our server via industry-standard 128 bit SSL.

Your credit card and financial details are not stored with us, and we have no access to them. This is why we use Paypal or Paymate for secure online transactions.

 

Privacy Policy

Listening Earth keeps all personal information submitted in the strictest confidence. Information is kept on a secure server and is only used to process orders from Listening Earth. This information will not be released to anyone other than as necessary to fulfill your order.

We will not rent or sell your personal information to any third party - full stop.

 

 

Exchange and Refund Policy

Occasionally CDs have manufacturing faults, and in this case we will happily exchange any defective item. Any corruption of downloadable files will be corrected as soon as we are advised.

Ordered the wrong product?

CD: If a CD is unopened and still in its shrink wrapping (except for a few of our older titles that are not shrink-wrapped), we will accept it for return and exchange. Please get in contact with us first to discuss the issue.

Digital product: If your product has not been downloaded, we may swap your purchase for an alternate title. However we cannot do this once the album has been downloaded. Once, again, you will need to get in touch with us to discuss the issue and make arrangements.

If the conditions for an exchange are met, but you would prefer a refund instead, we will happily make one. If you paid by Paypal this is quite straightforward. However Paymate is a different process, and it may take longer for a refund transaction to be enacted. In either case, we will discuss with you what needs to be done.

 

 

Contacting Us

Generally, Sarah attends to orders and licensing enquiries, while Andrew is the person to speak to regarding specific information about our publications, website or unusual requests.

Email:

Use the Contact form, found at the top right of our the website.

Phone:

Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm AEST
Australia: 03 5476 2609
from overseas: +61 3 5476 2609 (AEST is usually 10 hours ahead of GMT and 15 hours ahead of NAEST)
(If you're phoning from Britain or Europe, your mornings are the best time to reach us during office hours. If from America, your morning or evenings are good.)

Mail:

Listening Earth Pty Ltd
PO Box 188,
Castlemaine,
Victoria 3450
Australia