Speculation On a Lossless iTunes Store

DrJenny writes "C|net UK has up an interesting blog post predicting that within 12 months Apple's iTunes Store will include a download center for lossless audio. This would be a massively positive move for people who spend thousands of dollars on hi-fi gear, but refuse to give money to stores that only offer compressed music — they could finally take advantage of legal digital downloads. The article goes into details on how Apple's home-grown ALAC lossless encoding relates to FLAC, DRM, and the iPod ecosystem."

they make money on the razors

[User 956]

Speculation On a Lossless iTunes Store

Lossless? I thought the iTunes store was a loss leader?

Re:"Lossless"? Such BS

[croddy]

My kingdom for a mod point.

Re:24/96?

[Anonymous Coward]

That 48 KHz, even with 24-bit precision, should take care of all sounds possible for the human to hear?

Human being the key thing here. What makes you think that parent is human?
On the internet nobody knows you're a dog...

Re:24/96?

[Hes Nikke]

i've gotten it the other way around... I've been told that i have 'the golden ear' when i told someone that they left there CRT tv on. i can hear the picture tube wine when it is displaying all black and no sound. maybe i do have an audiophiles ears, but i am certainly not a snob about it (those apple ear buds sure suck!)

i have trained eyes too. i see all sorts of compression artifacts on digital TVs that nobody else notices. i wish i could turn that ability off! or just bring back the analauge signal!

I'm sure I'll be modulated for saying this, but

[User 956]

As much as it hertz, their loss results in your gain.

Re:24/96?

[soleblaze]

Meh, since when does the post -90s (or post 80s for that matter) music industry care about something as silly as dynamic range? You need to hear our music without having to turn up your radio! 3dB of dynamic range should be enough for anyone.

Re:polution control needed

[Anonymous Coward]

learn to spell fucktard and maybe Ill visit that gay site you keep incessantly promoting....

F-U-C-K-T-A-R-D. Now please visit my site [goat.cx] as promised.

Re:The reasons I'll never adopt DRM lossless audio

[Grishnakh]

Personally, I'm beginning to wonder if the real reason for dynamic range compression is so that customers aren't surprised by how crappy some manufactured idol bands and singers sound in person without heavy studio voice processing.

Watch out, you're about to start an argument with all the people who think that it's normal for good bands to make albums with only one good song.

Re:Finally! DRM free, lossless, digital music!

[Traa]

Who says that the lossless offer will be DRM free? (Didn't RTFA)

Also, it will be digital, so any self respecting audiophile should instantly dismiss this format because the quantum fluctuations that are part of the original audio are not represented to a high enough precision turning the recorded audio into near white noise useless garbage (aka pop). ;-)

Re:they make money on the razors

[flyingsquid]

Lossless? I thought the iTunes store was a loss leader?

No clue. I refused to read the linked article, because I'm a graphics snob, and they used JPEG graphics instead of lossless TIF files.