iTunes Audiophile Downloads

[jhwalker]

What's that?

 

I haven't been to a "record store" for five years - or at least since Tower Records closed here in Dallas - and even then, it was mostly to check out new releases before I bought them thru Amazon. Now, I only buy physical media when I can't find a hi-res download and would rather have 16/44 lossless rips than MP3.

 

Upshot is, for me, the local music retailer disappeared a long time ago . . .

 

[kirkmc]

Do you seriously think that more than a handful of people would care about this?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Here in Minneapolis we have a few good music retailers where i enjoy shopping. It's easy to stroll the shelves looking for new music in a different way than browsing online. I like both methods and would like it if the local guys stayed around.

 

[labjr]

Bring on the Hi-res. Apple doing this can only help the audiophile market. However, I still like hard copies. I don't necessarily want to play the discs all time after transferring it to the computer. Just own a physical, tangible item that I can hold in my hand. Read the liner notes and show off my collection to company.

 

[PierOz]

Hi Nigel,

 

 

Apparently none of the ipods plays 24bit files natively

 

you should read this thread:

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/ipod-2496-and-higher-when

 

 

Pierre

 

[PierOz]

Do you think that selling 24bit recordings on iTunes would prompt labels to stop damaging the music with unnecessary dynamic compression (thanks to the higher dynamic range available)?

 

cheers,

 

Pierre

 

[sauerball]

I tried to change, I got a job in sales

I bought a shirt uptown in Bloomindales

And babe I tried to make the latest scene

Hitting cool just like Jimmy Iovine

I bought a record with all the latest grooves

A book of love with all the latest moves

I bought some flowers and I waited at your door

And you came out, didn't want to see me no more

 

Whoa whoa whoa

I quit little darling

Yeah no matter what I do, girl you know it's true

Ain't good enough for you

 

Anyway, I am cautiously optimistic about this. Redbook would be a huge improvement but 24 bit lossless would be awesome.

 

[agentsmith]

Unfortunately Apple still does not think that markets outside of their comfort zones like Hong Kong are worth their effort. I guess to Stevie we are all pirates out there.

 

[realhifi]

Love being able to browse a music store. I agree completely with both methods being valid and I too enjoy one as much as the other. If you are not in a good size city it becomes a bit harder to find a decent shop but the cities still seem to be able to support some.

 

[bottlerocket]

I noticed several enticements for Mr. Jobs skillfully entwined in Chris's article.

 

1) Sales of higher priced Itunes tracks

2) Sales of upgraded Apple hardware

2) Reference to the competition (HP) potentially doing the same thing.

 

All of the above should be obvious to Apple, and maybe they are getting through their long list of rollouts. I guess if I had an Ipad to produce, I'd put it ahead of hi-res Itunes in the marketing schedule too.

 

[zerung]

This is a defining moment for us in the digital audio realm. As Chris notes, this will boost the hardware industry big time (At least the hardware side).

As digital as I have gone, my friend in the analogue world still smirk and petty my sounds; their is definately superior at present.

If we look at the photography industry, the digital industry has made leap and bounds progress and digital images at the forefront of the industry using high end DSL or the midium format standards are as good as the analogue ones. The gap there has been closed and the way ahead is very clear.

In digital audio the ironic issues is that the music is still saved in the DAW and then released in vinyl(Sounding much better) Does this imply that our DAC manufacturers have been completely incapable to reproduce the sonic signature of the vinyl system? Is this purely down to the chip being used? If this is the case, the apple kick in the butt may mean more dac chips being sold, more funds for development of the chio industry and finally better DAC for us??

Here's looking at you kid!!

 

[Erwin S]

Nobody is stopping Apple from offering 16/44.1 right now. Perfectly usable with iPod Classic. No investments needed what so ever.

 

I presume this could be a triple offering in the (near?) future:

AAC 320 kbps album €10

16/44.1 ALAC album €13

24/96 (ALAC/AIFF) album €20?

 

[sauerball]

"Nobody is stopping Apple from offering 16/44.1 right now. Perfectly usable with iPod Classic. No investments needed what so ever."

 

Apple is like the chief cat herder with the record labels. My guess Apple would like to do that already. Hard to tell who's preventing lossless downloads of mainstream music.

 

 

 

[One and a half]

it wouldn't surpise me that they would offer high res files in ALAC only. no big deal on this, many good converters can change this to FLAC/WAV anyway. Note ALAC most likely requires a royalty, whereas FLAC does not? We couldn't have that could we Steve.

 

[kirkmc]

A royalty from whom? It's Apple's format.

 

[One and a half]

the recent increase in App store demands by Apple from developers of ipod/iphone apps. The same philosophy can apply to record labels, since Apple is a distributor of music content from others that aren't Apple. Apple hosts a site that, like a bricks and mortar store sells product for a cost +.

 

[kirkmc]

Apple hasn't increased their "demands." Their cut has been 30% from day one for the App Store.

 

As for music, there are very complex agreements with different labels. There's no fixed cut. And there's no way that you can call their cut a "royalty." It's no different from the margin a store makes selling products. (FYI, any store gets a heck of a lot more than 30% when they sell a CD or book.)

 

[firedog]

I'm not sure this isn't just another Apple "vaporware" rumor, but I do hope it's true.

 

Because of drive sizes on iGadgets, hard for me to believe Apple would offer anything above 24/44.1. But that alone would make me happy, as I thought the Beatles 24 bit audibly improved (a bit warmer, a bit more detail) the sound of the CD's - just a little, but a noticeable amount.

 

I can see the logic of Apple wanting to get in on this small, but growing market. A bit of additional income, tie heavy music buyers to their MAC/iTunes ecosystem, and knock out potential competitors before they get entrenched in the market. No doubt the market will grow, and it may be one of the few market niches that will be growing steadily, so that's a good reason to be in it. Much like vinyl is for record companies- small market, but the only "hard" medium that's consistently growing year on year.

 

[Erwin S]

I am pretty certain that Apple knows everything about the music that their users have on iTunes, because I never disallowed iTunes to "send info to Apple" as it does regularly. In my case, they know I stopped buying albums from them (256kbps) some time ago, but keep adding AIFF 16/44.1 and 24 bit albums to iTunes at alarming rate!!! More and more users are aware of the SQ limitations of lossy music.

 

Almost 2,500 albums here now, time to plan some disco party!

 

[labjr]

"In digital audio the ironic issues is that the music is still saved in the DAW and then released in vinyl(Sounding much better)"

 

Are you making this up? How the heck do they convert to analog for vinyl mastering? With a secret analog DAC chip made just for vinyl?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi labjr - All that's needed is a digital file, digital to analog converter (DAC), and a cutting lathe like the one pictured below. I was at Paul Stubblebine's studio when he made a lacquer master from a high resolution file. The lacquer master is then used to create vinyl records. He gave me the master which I still have :~)

 

Very few people record to analog sources like tape now days. Digital to vinyl is how a lot of this is made.

 

 

 

 

[khollister]

The only analog recording I am aware of these days is the occasional audiophile "live" recording of small ensembles (Mapleshade comes to mind). All of the popular (as in non-classical) stuff being released on vinyl these days is produced digitally using ProTools, Logic, etc. It is way too much work (and therefore cost) to edit and mix an album via analog compared to the workflow in a DAW.

 

Among other reasons, this is exactly why many believe the "sound" of vinyl is some sort of euphonic coloration (not that it's bad) given that the audio has already made a round trip through an ADC/DAC before hitting the cutter. And the DAC the mastering house is using is probably better than what many audiophiles have.

 

[firedog]

Most music is recorded today in 24/96 from my understanding. So even on vinyl, it comes from a digital source.

 

For older (taped music) the analogue tapes MAY be used, but it is becoming more common to digitize the tape at very high quality (even 24/192) and then go through the process of making vinyl.

 

The Doors remasters were done this way, as apparently there was a fear that the original tapes wouldn't survive the process - they weren't in good shape. But even with tape that is in good shape, this is often the way it is done. For instance, Abbey Road has more or less confirmed that the upcoming Beatles' re-releases in vinyl are going to be made from the digital transcriptions of the original tape masters.

 

This may seem odd, but lots of recording pros say they can't hear (or hear only a tiny)difference between well done hi-rez digital and the original analogue. In addition, it's more convenient and cheaper for the record companies, and also enables them to "standardize" their catalogue - something corporations like to do.

 

[thniels]

Completely disregarding the affect this will have on iTunes itself, I cannot but hope that this will spawn a more serious effort among other hardware vendors to raise the bar somewhat. Too many streamers lack HD support effectively disqualifying them an audiophile context. If Iovine and Universal comes through with this and Apple accepts the challenge, then other vendors will have to rank up and implement HD support.

 

[labjr]

Chris, I'm aware of how the process works. I was being sarcastic. I can't believe that a vinyl record made from a digital master can be better than using a Hi-Res file and a good DAC. Not these days. Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I would even say there's more loss or coloration with the vinyl without even hearing it.