According to a recent report, Apple may be planning to introduce 24-bit audio file downloads through iTunes in June. Apparently the company has been talking to different record labels to improve the quality of the music sold.
Currently, music sold on iTunes is in 16-bit lossy ACC format encoded at 256 kbps for reduce its size as much as possible. In the case of 24-bit music, its quality is much higher, but its size would also be increased considerably.
Currently, the music in the iTunes Store has a high quality in relation to other stores, although clients prefer formats like FLAC, which is compatible with most media players. For those unfamiliar, they are considered lossless formats which do not lose quality when converted from audio sources, for example CDs. Lossy formats (those that lose quality when converted) are for example MP3, APE, AAC, etc.
Apple too has its own lossless format known as ALAC, that there are those who affirm that it is not as efficient as the FLAC. The advantage of this is that if you own an iOS device or listen to music through iTunes, these will be compatible. In fact, a couple of years ago Apple launched a section on iTunes called "Mastered for iTunes" in which the songs offered would be of high quality, higher than AAC.
It should be mentioned that the higher quality of this type of files compared to the current ones may not be perceptible to the listenerNot to mention whether customers are actually willing to pay a higher price for the best possible sound. In any case, those who have always demanded higher quality in iTunes music, this information will reassure them. The date set for this supposed launch it will be next June, possibly during WWDC.
