this could be incredibly obvious, but i cant get access to the a capella file itself. it will only show up as quick time in browser when i click the mp3 option

Did you try right-clicking and “save target as…”?

I’m sure this has been brought up before but I couldn’t find the original post. I know there are issues with Quicktime downloading from this site. I remember having the same issues that you describe.

If it’s an option please try another player. And set the other player as the default for MP3 and M3U files. You may have to switch off the options on QT to be the default for those file types as well.

I wish I could be of more help. I solved my problems by uninstalling QT all together.