Apple Responds

[jeffca]

In response to my inquiry, Has Apple lost interest in audio?, which I posted here and forwarded to company, I received the following response:

 

Dear Mr. Henning,

 

Thank you for your recent correspondence to Apple. We appreciate your comments on iTunes audio quality.

 

Apple is committed to providing a positive experience for our customers through the use of our hardware, software, and Internet offerings. Feedback such as yours helps us determine areas of opportunity as we continue to grow our business.

 

Please be assured that Apple values the time and consideration that you invested in your email.

 

Regards,

 

Becky Cushman

Apple

 

To her answer (a stock one, but, hey, it was an answer), I replied:

Hi, Becky.

 

Thank you much for your response. I don't think Bill Gates ever gave out his e-mail address to the public and I doubt that he'd ever have someone act upon e-mails sent to him if he did.

 

Since I'm an audio nut and a multimedia artist, Apple's audio apps and the Core Audio subsystem of OS X are very important to me. I derive both pleasure and a living from them.

 

Unfortunately, it seems to me that Apple has put all audio development on the back burner and focused on the iPhone, iPod and Snow Leopard. I was hoping that bringing Emagic into the fold would keep Apple at the forefront of audio development, but clearly this hasn't been the case.

 

And, even in the area of music downloads, Apple seems to have no interest in hi-res music. Audiophiles are left with no alternative, but run Windows and use WindowsMedia-based services like MusicGiants for true, CD-quality and high resolution music.

 

The audio quality of most popular music is bad enough without decreasing it with lossy compression. While 256kbps isn't awful, I have no interest in buying it. I have over 1,700 songs in iTunes. I've only bought 5 of them from the iTunes Store.

 

If you offered 44.1khz/16bit (or greater) audio files in Apple Lossless format through the iTunes Store, I'd buy music from you all the time.

 

I find it ironic that a company obsessed with leading the industry when it comes to the quality of their products has no interest in high quality music downloads.

 

Please send this up the flagpole so that it can be seen by someone in charge. I think you guys are dropping the ball.

 

Thanks for your time and all the best to you and Steve J,

 

jeff

 

We'll have to see whether this has any effect. Of course, a few other people echoing the same couldn't hurt. The place to send it to is [email protected]

 

jeff

 

[jtconte]

Jeff, thanks for posting that. I'm glad to see you got a response. I will send my own thoughts on the subject. As you said, it can only help.

 

John

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Great to see guys. I'm jumping on the bandwagon as well with my own email(s).

 

[tino]

I'd really like to switch to Mac in the future, but Apple's convenience focussed approach is a little worrying, so I'll be sending one in too...........