Apple to download 24 bit in iTunes?

Yeah I don't care why they are pushing 24 bit (we all know why...). In reality 24 bit may not sound any different than well recoded red book but at least if it is 24 bit maybe they will not screw up the recording and the loudness wars of popular music will come to an end some day.

I bet it will be 24 bit lossless so the file may not be that large.

Does apple still have DMR? I have never downloaded anything from them.

I ment DRM digital rights management.

Sinner,

I'm curious why digital music outlets haven't released tracks in 24bit from the git go...

I think it's due to the fact that not much mainstream hardware (i.e., iPods) exists to play it. Those of us who crave it are a niche market at best. A 24/96 copy of the master (which may have only been 24/96 to begin with) would be pretty awesome assuming they didn't feel the need to mess with/compress it. Hopefully HDTracks has started something with their sale of the uncompressed 24/96 remastered version of Paul McCartney's Band on the Run.

Even though I think it's ploy for the music industry to make more money, we audiophiles certainly stand to benefit from its success.

The DRM is vacant now from iTunes downloads, and the rates are doubled to 256 from 128. Their 128s w/DRM used to be able to be 'adjusted' up and the DRM vaporized. I'm not sure if they are still doing that.

Hopefully they won't get the notion to create a completely new file format for this endeavor, forcing everyone to acquire new software at the very least... or some plug in to add onto current media players.

Sober thinking says iTunes/Apple likely will go with their lossless codec cimilar to FLAC... Apple lossless... rather than AIF.

It could be exactly the other way round too and AIF is the big dog instead.

Whatever, it'll be interesting... especially the price for these files/albums.

Meanwhile, HDTracks is having a great sale on 24/96 content.