The Official "Apple Digital Masters / Mastered for iTunes" Thread*

I got all of it, as best I can tell, including the 1964 concert.

Weirdly, it's acting like it was downloading every song twice, but it doesn't seem to have done. My guess is the servers are just freaking out about all the orders they're likely getting.

 

Thanks for the great work to spot this offer, Streamingmylife! I grabbed the entire Beatles Box Set for just £8.99 in the UK Store - unbelievable MFiT/iTunes LP bargain...Merry Christmas indeed

 

Only just read this it’s back up to £99 now.

 

Must have been an error - it only lasted a day or so...sorry you missed it. The only issue I've got it that the art work and formatting once downloaded is all over the place - a real mess (trying to separate all the individual albums out with their own artwork now) but can't really complain about that for £8.99!

 

Had the same issue with the US Albums set from iTunes. Initially it downloaded and formatted the tracks into the individual albums with their own artwork. Now all tracks download as part of a single album called ‘The U.S. Albums'. S.ince buying the bargain priced stereo set yesterday, all of my Beatles albums now come under T for kThe Beatles’ rather than, you know, B.

Not going to complain too much though. Looking forward on doing the Washington concert over the weekend with a glass of wine,

 

You can get them to be sorted by the B, if you want. Select the tracks and right click and select File Info or something like that. One on of the tab, there's a Sort As field that would probably have in it, "The Beatles". Just change that to "Beatles".

 

So why would I buy the iTunes Beatles box if I already own the physical box?Sorry I missed the reason

 

I am glad it's all one album, with the black and white single cover. I already own some other of the single albums from iTunes that I have purchased over the years, so this keeps it all nice and separate.

 

Good for iTunes on the Mac. Alas with Apple Music and iCloud Music Library active on the phone, I can’t change the metadata there or even access it. I’ll live with it for the moment, the cost of getting a bargain

Mastered for iTunes files for mobile listening, rather than lossy rips taken from the CDs. If you’ve got lossless CD rips though this advantage disappears. The iTunes LP content is nice but only replicates the Cd booklets at a lower resolution. And the Washington 1964 concert on digital download. The mini-docs are the same as is on the individual stereo CDs and the DVD in the Stereo CD set.

I already own the Stereo CD box set myself and had the iTunes mastered files for the individual UK stereo albums for mobile listening as part of Apple Music. Only advantage for me is having the MFiT files should I ever cancel my AM subscription and the Washington concert footage. Totally worth £8.99 in my book, despite owning the physical box set.

Would have been cool to have the choice. I loved the US Albums set as individual albums on my iPhone/iPad Pro, with the individual covers displayed. The current ‘single album’ format has it all as one album with the Boys sat in front of the flag as album art for the set. Playing individual tracks has the respective US album cover for the album the track is taken from.

 

The main reason in the discussion here is that it appears there was an error very briefly in the iTunes Store pricing that saw the Beatles Box Set available for the price of a single album (£8.99 UK) for a very short time. Glad I grabbed it - back up to £100 now. More for those who didn’t already own it I guess...or a nice alternative for listening on the go, as coffeetime mentioned.

 

For you in UK. Deep Purple - Machine Head MFiT for £3.99 is not a bad deal.

 

I may be tempted to buy some Beatles stereo on iTunes, their particular strong points are on the early stereo albums.

Hard Day's Night and Beatles For Sale sound much improved to my ear, treble has been dialed back a bit. I never liked the stereo mixes of their early albums but iTunes makes them somewhat listenable.

Also Let It Be is a strong point, dialed back the bass a lot and sounds much cleaner to my ears. White album and Pepper I can't really notice any major improvement.

 

2009 stereo Beatles for Sale is about the only case, personally speaking, where the stereo livens up an otherwise dull, tired sounding mono record (the songs are great, the mono mix lacks a certain energy. I found the 2009 stereo CD an unexpected surprise after listening to the 1987 mono mix for so many years. I almost prefer 209 stereo to the 2009 mono reissue).

The MFiT Anthology albums and LIB...Naked are all improvements over the existing/original CDs, mainly due to the rolling back of the noise reduction. Depends on how much you enjoy 'second tier' Beatles though.

 

Oh I agree but should clarify, iTunes remasters sound a tad different from the 2009 CD box set.

IMO, slight improvement.

 

Downloads unavailable as streams would be grayed out, pending future licensing. “But you can always go back and listen to the downloads, they always will work,” another source noted.
So...which is it?

 

Fingers crossed

Is High-Rez coming to Apple Music?

 

Thanks for the link, Streamingmylife...would love it to be so, but think this could simply be a tagging error, as it has now been corrected on the Apple Music (UK) ECM curator page to say Featured Albums. They are all MFiT though, so perhaps there is a chance they may test some Hi-Res out via ECM...but won't get too excited just yet.

 

I would be ticked if Apple finally offered a lossless product but then ended the ability to purchase and download them, thus limiting the long-sought-after lossless files to streaming-only.

 

Does anyone know if the iTunes mastering of Fleet Foxes's Crack-Up is an improvement over the CD?

 

Bruce Springsteen - Magic is now MFiT. Can't find it on his landing page here yet, but available upon search. This leaves only High Hopes as non-MFiT of the studio albums, but maybe in the works.

I'm not buying another version of Magic, at full price, but if anyone buys and could comment on any audio improvement it would be interesting.

 

How does this one compare to the painful mastering on the original CD?

 

Should be this master.

Springsteen “Magic” HDtracks 2018

 

Not sure if this is new or not, but Sly & The Family Stone's There's A Riot Goin' On is MFiT now, with a digital booklet to boot.

 

Riot has been MFiT for a year or so, but thanks, Artie - always good to be kept informed of any finds... and as a reminder too!

 

In US, and also here in Sweden, Jason Isbell are on sale. Something more than free, Southeastern and Nashville Sound are a few bucks off. All worthy additions.