The Guardian is reporting that Apple is working on a new audio format that would pave the way for “high definition” audio via the iTunes Music Store. This format would also have something called “adaptive streaming” baked in, which would fit the quality of the music to bandwidth and storage constraints when being streamed from iCloud and iTunes Match.
According to the report Apple has asked a London music studio to make their audio files ready for the new format, which ultimately would allow Apple to improve the quality of iTunes Match content. Where the report is unclear, is whether Apple would scale the audio quality as it was being downloaded (based on bandwidth), or if Apple would have several version of a song, varying in quality, on standby to meet a user’s connection limitations.
The report wraps up by suggesting that, due to the timing of this discovery, Apple may be preparing to unveil this higher-quality format at the company’s March 7th iPad event. It’s also worth remembering that a report surfaced only a month ago, which claimed that Neil Young spoke with Steve Jobs about a high-definition audio file format. Young noted that little interest was given to the idea.
Plus, Apple very recently rolled out a “Mastered for iTunes” initiative which urges artists to go back to the master recordings of their songs as their source material for the iTunes Store. All the components are in place for a development. This will be interesting to watch unfold.
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TAGS: audio
