I hope everyone in the USA had a wonderful 4th of July!
 
I have a mix and mastered WAV file that is going to be sold as a digital download file. When I received the file back from the production company, there was no silence at the beginning of the track. I'd like to know:
 
1. Should I add silence to the beginning of the track (which is meant for digital download only)?
2. How much silent time should I add (it's the only track/sold as a single song)?
3. When I export the file using Cakewalk Sonar (newest build), should I use the following options?...
 
Dither: None
Sample Rate: 44100
Bit Depth: 16
 
Anything else I might not be considering?
 
Sincerely,
David Mivshek

Hi.
1: IMO yes.
2: I like to use approx 2 seconds silence before a song starts (depending on the song). If the song fades in naturally, I wouldn't add that much.
3: Yes. And if you are selling MP3, and "hi res" audio. Add those formats (MP3 & 24/44.1).
Others may know better.
All the best.

I agree with Ken.
I know the Red Book standard for CDs specifies a 2 second gap.
Digital download is a little different as the tracks are not spaced apart.
Every digital download I have received does have a little silence at the beginning, is there a standard.
not really.

Ok. My fault on something. I now see that there's 300ms of silence before song starts. For a "digital download only" song, does this seem sufficient?

witch_wyzwurd
Ok. My fault on something. I now see that there's 300ms of silence before song starts. For a "digital download only" song, does this seem sufficient?

I would add a little more.
I still think 2 seconds is about right.

We work for a lot of publishing companys.
We add always between 700 to 800ms. (Download and CD)
Classical Music a little bit more.
 

One reason for adding a little silence to the start fo a download track is in case someone's playing a series of tracks using a media player that doesn't itself insert a brief gap between tracks or has burned the audio to a "gapless" CD.

If the previous song ends with a loud sudden stop and there's no gap before the next one's loud opening the change-over can be a bit of a jolt to the senses, especially if there's a key change involved that's less than musical. A small silent gap gives the listener's brain time to realise one track has ended and to get ready for the next.

The gap can be quite short, just enough to provide a hint that one thing has ended and another is about to start.

Ok. I appreciate the responses. The person who mixed/mastered said they always go with about 250ms-300ms because of short attention spans these days. They said they have thousands of songs they've done uploaded onto CDBaby without any issues. However, everywhere else I've read, plus here, says up to 900ms. Even as much as 2 full seconds. I'm going with 900ms as that meets the best of all answers I've read and when I play the song doesn't seem to be too long or short.
 
Thanks for everyone's help.

witch_wyzwurd
... said they always go with about 250ms-300ms because of short attention spans these days.

Wow... that's actually a sad statement about today's world.

jyoung60

witch_wyzwurd
... said they always go with about 250ms-300ms because of short attention spans these days.

Wow... that's actually a sad statement about today's world.

Yeah. If you don't get hooked in 0,3 seconds it's a bad song anyway!