Lossless CD quality audio from iTunes?

As the new iTunes software now offers the option to encode in to 100% original quality Apple Lossless format, speculations have started whether the quality of the iTunes store is about to be upgraded. While the size of the download would increase significantly, a typical music CD would still be a lot smaller than a Divx encoded movie, so bandwidth shouldn’t be an issue either.

In a private release of iTunes Producer 1.4 this week, Apple said the software “now encodes music in Apple Lossless format, which produces larger audio files and will increase upload time.”

iTunes Producer is distributed to record labels by Apple as a tool for prepping and submitting their content for inclusion on the iTunes Music Store. The iTunes service currently serves up tracks in only the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format.

Although the ACC format also produces tracks with a quality rivaling that of uncompressed CD audio, it does so to a lesser extent than the Apple Lossless format.

Source: AppleInsider