They are slowly coming around to selling music in flac.
I really love buying CDs to rip. such good quality compared to downloads.
I think bandcamp is one of the onse who started doing this. I was excited when I saw that there are some. I hope Amazon comes around to it. It's not like they don't have the space to store it.
EDIT: do you have some sources that provide Flac and have a decent selection?
Let me look around. I will get back to you. Most of my music collection stems directly from artists themselves but there are some places that do offer mainstream stuff.
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Nope, I buy CDs and Rip myself 
I know of bandcamp and one I can't remember... but nothing "mainstream".
i only buy used cd's. i wont support the record companies ripping off artists.
note: less than the top 1% artists (in sales) receive any substantial compensation from the recording industry, nor do they retain any copyrights on the music they produce(d). the others make all their income touring.
dont believe me? ask john fogerty
fogerty was forbidden to perform any creedence clearwater revival songs from the early 70's until recently, even though he wrote and produced them, due to copyright ownership by a record label. through a agreement and arbitration the 2 finally settled on a way for fogerty to perform said music.
Bandcamp does but it is upto the creator to provide it if i understand correctly
Think google play music also does it but im not sure
Everyone I listen to is dead or at deaths door. So thankfully I don't have to worry about supporting the artists.
7digital is starting to get there. I'd link them, but they have different domains depending on where you live (if they sell in your country at all).
EDIT : Looks like @Freaksmacker beat me to it, with a larger selection as well.
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I can do deeper but it does start getting a bit dodgy 
but there are many legit places with limited collections of stuff.
I did not include Tidal because screw that dude.
Thanks, that's a good selection. Really appreciate it!
There are more. Surf around and try surfing other countries. That is what it is all about. Sharing
Yeah, I'm going to check it out when I have some more time.
I have bought plenty of music online, usually direct from artist. Can't recall last time I saw one not have FLAC download option. Rockbox firmware on mp3 player can play FLAC
Agree - I have pc playing to large audio speakers, and most folks still can't notice a difference above 192k imo
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As far as I know the record companies do not sell direct to digital media. Sites like HD tracks and the like will buy the media and then resell it.
In fact most of the "flac" music that exists is nothing more than an mp3 that was ripped from a cd into flac. There isn't a whole heck of a lot of true flac music out there.
If that has changed, feel free to correct me / let me know.
Mp3 is a grossly inferior audio format that is proprietary and greatly reduces what can be done with the format. On top the the fact that modern players and equipment have come forward in leaps and bounds to allow things like remixing on the fly and heavy dsp.
While linux accepting mp3 would make adoption easy for some, it will be at the cost of stepping back to the stone age. Storage is no longer the issue it use to be and frankly the continued use of mp3 is direct oppression.
Always purchase the highest possible quality for your archives and copy/convert down to whatever various formats that are needed for your devices.
I could go into the differences of what i hear but that is subjective and will be different from person to person.
I notice the lack of dynamic range and clarity in certain ranges.
The biggest wall that can be noticed is the second you go to remix add effects/dsp ect..... or recover original
I am certainly not an expert in anyway but i did come up through the shit storm of the format wars. Remember time shifting ?
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Implying MP3 isn't already used everywhere in the non-music-enthusiast market...
More like lied to , taken advantage of, and setting for less because it was shoved down their throats. Using the everyone else is using it argument still does not make it correct.
I know, but the fact is that the majority of "mainstream" people knows what an MP3 is. Hell my mother knows what an MP3 is. Ask anyone what the hell an OGG is an they'll tell you it's an egg with a spelling mistake.
Well, there isn't much wrong with lossy audio \no more there's nothing wrong with lossy video. I made the case of using opus because it uses less data, but I was told MP3 is ubiquitous and it's a mature codec. Like the MP3 Lame Codec has peaked after all those years. imagine how bad mp3 encoding was 20 years ago and think with newer implementations, there's better quality and compression ratios than we had 20 years ago. I'm thinking it's like that with opus.