Apple has announced the Apple Digital Masters program, offering high-resolution songs that have been mastered for iTunes and the Apple ecosystem under one streaming catalogue.
According to Billboard, Apple has been introducing Mastered for iTunes songs into its Apple Music offering for some time, with 75% of the current Top 100 songs available as a Digital master, with 71% of global Top 100 songs also part of the new scheme.
Back in 2012, Apple launched its Mastered for iTunes program, allowing music engineers to optimize their tracks for digital download, using high-resolution masters and encoding them for iTunes.
Since then, Apple has been moving songs over to Apple Music – though until now, it has been impossible to know whether a song has been remastered or whether it’s a standard streaming copy.
Although most people won’t realize a song has been remastered or that they’re listening to lossless quality, music connoisseurs have been willing to pay more for higher quality music.
TIDAL, for example, offers a lossless streaming option, called HiFi.
They charge $19.99 per month for such option, compared to their $9.99 per month for their basic package.
Whether Apple will introduce more high-quality audio tracks in the future remains to be seen, and whether the company plans to bundle them for free or offer a ‘premium’ Apple Music for a mark-up is also unknown.
What is known, however, is that Apple is fighting hard to compete with Spotify, and any new way for the company to differentiate itself from its competitors will allow Apple to get ahead.
Are you excited about more lossless music coming to Apple Music, or do you struggle to tell the difference between audio files? Sound off on Twitter and check back soon for more.
