If Apple were to turn iTunes CD Quality and Hi-Res...how long would it take?

The clueless masses will notice when the lossless files don't play on all of their gear. A big problem with getting lossless audio accepted is that there isn't a lossless format that works everywhere on all devices. ALAC works on Macs and Apple gear and some other gear. FLAC isn't supported on all portables and only just became pre-installed on Windows with Windows 10. ALAC isn't universal. FLAC isn't universal. WMA Lossless is dead. Which format is the right one to pick for the clueless masses to download?

 

ALAC will work with iTunes.

 

But there are a lot of "mp3" players (portable, stand-alone, and in cars) that don't support ALAC. Pretty much everything supports AAC and MP3. Not so with FLAC or ALAC. Consumers aren't going to like it if they end up buying files that don't work in their players.

 

But the general public download from the App Store to play on iTunes.

 

Perhaps, but I still haven't heard a single convincing reason why Apple should do this. I can think of reasons why it would be a bad move for Apple, but outside of making some audiophiles happy (a small niche within a niche), I just don't see the business case for this.

 

On Bandcamp you can choose the file format for the downloads. They offer mp3, aac, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, and even ogg. It costs the same to get the lossy versions as the lossless versions. There is no price penalty for lossy vs. lossless. Yet 80% of the people who buy a download at Bandcamp get the mp3. Lossless isn't what the clueless masses want. That's the reality we have to live with. The people like us who want lossless are a niche. It would take some courage for a business like Apple to make downloads more complicated by offering lossless downloads when 80% of their customers don't want that.

 

AAC isn't as standard as I'd like. Similar to MP3, there's licensing involved so there are some devices I've come across, usually stuff that originates oversees, where AAC support is questionable at times. My car's USB in doesn't even support AAC, and it's a 2011 model. MP3 is pretty much a defacto standard, on the other hand.

As for the iTunes lossless question...I don't think Apple will care all that much, outside of its own ecosystem. So ALAC could certainly be an option assuming it has support across all Apple devices.

 

Not even a tag like this..
'iTunes now cd quality' ?

 

Apple, like ALL online stores/streaming services, receives with 44/16 wav files and then sells/streams 256k files
Only a few stores/services use higher resolution (Qobuz, HDtracks, etc...)

absolutely not, their contracts give them the possibility to do anything they want, basically

 

I don't think Apple will ever do this for the reasons mentioned already. I also wonder why anyone would care so much and why they still feel tethered to ITunes when there are so many other options out there. Then again, I don't listen to contemporary top 40 stuff so I'm not missing out on "ITunes Exclusives" or whatever.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer it if Apple went entirely ALAC but it's clear to me that their core audience doesn't care at all about that. And I suspect half the people clamouring for Apple to go lossless or high res are Apple haters and wouldn't buy from them anyway.

 

Quite good, but not great. Not even remotely.

 

Well, if you are going to compare everything to hi-rez on a revealing sound system in a acoustically-controlled enviornment, nothing will sound good.

 

True.

But... I've never bought a single track from iTunes. I would if they started selling CD quality and/or High Res.

 

"Why won't Apple do lossless downloads ? They suck"
"OK they do now, you can download tracks in ALAC"
"Not interested thank you"

 

"ALAC doesn't sound as good as WAV!!!!1111!!!" more like.

 

Not much difference between ALAC and FLAC.
Both can be converted to the respected other without any loss of quality.

 

If what I have just read here is true (that Spotify is ready to offer CD quality for $20/month), then probably Apple will follow soon...

 

I guess thats good new as long as it doesn't kill off Qobuz which I am in love with!

 

Hopefully not! But it's a good news for me because Qobuz isn't offered in Australia and previewing new albums in lossless quality could be cool. Apple will have to adapt somehow, I guess.

 

Not true. I don't buy from iTunes because I won't buy lossy AAC files. If they went lossless, i'd buy. I am not an Apple fan or user, but I can easily convert the files to FLAC.

 

It will be a cold day in hell before I return to iTunes to manage my music library.

 

There is a kind of historical precedent for this, when Apple went from 128/kbps to 256/kbps files. Did most of their customers notice or care?

 

I don't have a personal experience with that transition, but the answer is yes. Several customers decided to upgrade their existing library to the new bitrate using iTunes Match (that's how it was called, if I'm not wrong).
You can find plenty of discussions about that on the apple support communities.

 

Streaming is for the car. So iTunes as it is is fine. Apple ain't gonna up the bitrate - it requires better networks etc. out of their control so they won't do it. In my car a CD sounds FAR superior than iTunes but they isn't as convenient.

If you want to go all digital streaming in the home use Tidal HIFI and not iTunes (and also, Why are you here?)