Apple Lossless - Do they sell it ?

Dolby

Dolby

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When you get songs off iTunes, is this an option ?
If so, can I convert these to FLAC afterwards?
Are they protected, in other words I can't blame them on another PC through XBMC?
 
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Apple uses AFLAC for lossless if I remember correctly.
 
Dolby said:
Are they protected, in other words I can't blame them on another PC through XBMC?
Click to expand...

You could blame another PC especially if you are using a Mac. ;)

From what i've known, there is no DRM on iTunes music. I downloaded a free song off iTunes and it never gave me the option of what format to download. It downloaded as a m4a. I uploaded it to Dropbox and PM'd you the link. Download it and see if it plays without issues.
 
vinodh said:
You could blame another PC especially if you are using a Mac. ;)

From what i've known, there is no DRM on iTunes music. I downloaded a free song off iTunes and it never gave me the option of what format to download. It downloaded as a m4a. I uploaded it to Dropbox and PM'd you the link. Download it and see if it plays without issues.
Click to expand...

iTunes has dual pricing for pay for songs. DRM FREE costs more.
 
Thanks - I'll let you know shortly :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless

They both have the same containers ... weird.

Apple Lossless data is stored within an MP4 container with the filename extension .m4a. This extension is also used by Apple for lossy AAC audio data in an MP4 container (same container, different audio encoding). However, Apple Lossless is not a variant of AAC (which is a lossy format), but rather a distinct lossless format that uses linear prediction similar to other lossless codecs

EDIT : I can play vinodh file
 
Chevron said:
iTunes has dual pricing for pay for songs. DRM FREE costs more.
Click to expand...

I just bought a song now off iTunes. $1.29 Ed Sheeran - Don't

Downloaded as a M4A exactly the same as the free song in my earlier post. There was no option to choose between a DRM or DRM-FREE version.
 
The majority of music on the iTS is iTunes Plus (256 kbps AAC) and is DRM free.
 
bwana said:
The majority of music on the iTS is iTunes Plus (256 kbps AAC) and is DRM free.
Click to expand...

All the music on iTunes is DRM-free. They started in January 2009 and by end March 2009, all the music was DRM-free. Wikipedia is awesome.
 
Chevron said:
iTunes has dual pricing for pay for songs. DRM FREE costs more.
Click to expand...

Not for many many years now.

Everything is DRM Free now and I do believe you no longer get ALAC unless you encode it yourself.

That being said, even with high end headphones I can't hear the difference between ALAC and the new standard iTunes Plus format.

iTunes Plus is essentially VBR with a minimum of 256k bit rate so very very good. It's doubtful you'll see any difference between that and FLAC Short of spectral analysis.

http://gizmodo.com/264617/listening-test-compares-itunes-plus-to-itunes-128kbps

Was hoping to find the guy who did some real audiophile research into this but can't get to it now.
 
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It's odd how they refuse to accept a lossless standand (FLAC) - and rather point to their own proprietary lossless codec - which they don't then choose not to even sell?
 
Dolby said:
It's odd how they refuse to accept a lossless standand (FLAC) - and rather point to their own proprietary lossless codec - which they don't then choose not to even sell?
Click to expand...

I believe FLAC and ALAC are identical it's just a case of open source licensing that doesn't allow Apple to make use of it.

They switched to iTunes Plus to preserve file size which makes sense considering this happened long before iCloud music streaming etc.
 
backstreetboy said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Lossless
Click to expand...

What I mean is I have a few devices - Logitech Squeezebox, Android phone / tablet , Apple TV etc and a library of FLAC files. Everything - barring the Apple - can read them. I've learnt Apple if a little more difficult that anyone else to deal with, so I won't argue about the codecs,

But there are a few songs I battle to get in FLAC, that I really want. For example THe Script - Album. It'd be great to download in Apple lossless and convert to FLAC to fit in my collection.
 
Converted some songs this morning from Flac to alac, the conversion takes like 5sec.
 
Hemps said:
Converted some songs this morning from Flac to alac, the conversion takes like 5sec.
Click to expand...

... but you can't download lossless from iTunes, you can't do anything
 
Dolby said:
... but you can't download lossless from iTunes, you can't do anything
Click to expand...


It is surprising.
I can't really notice the difference on my headphones, R1700 SennHeisers between flac and aac
 
But if they refuse to accept anyone elses lossless, you'd think they'd at least offer an alternative.
 
Dolby said:
But if they refuse to accept anyone elses lossless, you'd think they'd at least offer an alternative.
Click to expand...

Suppose considering the average size of a single Flac or alac file at roughly +-30MB, think most people will run out of space on their mobile devices.
Also the fact that most people are not audiophiles and wouldn't notice the difference between format quality of mp3, aac or flac unless they had high end sound system.
 
Dolby said:
What I mean is I have a few devices - Logitech Squeezebox, Android phone / tablet , Apple TV etc and a library of FLAC files. Everything - barring the Apple - can read them. I've learnt Apple if a little more difficult that anyone else to deal with, so I won't argue about the codecs,

But there are a few songs I battle to get in FLAC, that I really want. For example THe Script - Album. It'd be great to download in Apple lossless and convert to FLAC to fit in my collection.
Click to expand...

You can get lossless audio here:

http://bit.ly/Lennon-HDTracks
http://bit.ly/HDLennon-Qobuz
http://bit.ly/HDLennon-7Digital
http://bit.ly/Lennon-HiResAudio
http://bit.ly/Lennon-WiMP

I've found The Script lossless here. Don't know if it's flac but can always just repackage it. Otherwise go buy the album at Musica or Game and rip it yourself.

I don't bother with Flac anymore because most new music is mixed like ***** anyway.
 
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